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Dessert

Spanish Cream

A custard dessert made with milk, eggs, sugar, vanilla, and gelatin.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Spanish Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the gelatine in 1 pint of milk for 1 hour.

  2. Boil 1 quart of milk.

  3. Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks and place them in a deep bowl.

  4. Beat the egg yolks with sugar to taste until light.

Make the custard

  1. Once the milk boils, stir in the yolks, sugar, and soaked gelatine.

  2. Bring to a boil again.

  3. Remove from heat and pour over the egg whites.

  4. Flavor with vanilla.

Mold and set

  1. Wet a mold with cold water.

  2. Pour the mixture into the mold.

  3. Refrigerate to congeal.

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.

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. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

  3. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

  4. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

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

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

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Gelatine
Sets the mixture into a firm, sliceable structure as it cools.
Egg whites
Whipped to stiff peaks, they give the dessert a light, airy texture.
Egg yolks
Thicken the milk mixture and add richness and a smooth texture.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the gelatine sets and the yolks enrich.

The step that matters

Pour the milk mixture over the whites gently. Beaten egg whites hold their air only while undisturbed; pouring and folding gently keeps the foam from collapsing, which preserves the light texture once the dessert sets.

“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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