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Dessert

Orange Cream

A chilled gelatin dessert made with orange juice, cream, egg yolks, sugar, and gelatin.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Orange Cream

Why it works: Cream and gelatin match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,628 recipes. Both carry acetic acid, which smells sour, vinegar. The science ↓

Orange Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Heat the orange juice and cream in a saucepan.

  2. In a separate bowl, beat the egg yolks with the sugar.

  3. Cook the egg mixture in the heated juice and cream over hot water until thickened.

Set and chill

  1. Soften the gelatin in cold water.

  2. Add the softened gelatin to the mixture.

  3. Strain the mixture.

  4. Combine with the remaining cream.

  5. Pour the mixture into a mold.

  6. Chill until icy cold before serving.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Cream + gelatintop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,628 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  2. Sugar + gelatintop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,778 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Orange + sugartop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together19,212 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Orange and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 19,212 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Thicken the mixture as they cook and give the pudding a rich body.
Gelatin
Sets the pudding so it holds its shape when unmoulded and chilled.
Cream
Adds fat for a smooth, creamy texture and a rich mouthfeel.
Orange juice
Provides the citrus flavour and some acidity that brightens the sweet custard.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and helps balance the acidity of the orange juice.

The step that matters

Cook the egg mixture until thickened. Egg yolks thicken as they heat, but overheating can curdle them into grainy lumps. Cooking gently over hot water, rather than direct heat, keeps the custard smooth.

Swap the orange

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, egg, sugar, gelatin):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Strawberryfits better
  3. Raisinfits better
  4. Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, egg, sugar, gelatin. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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