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Dessert

Nut Cream

A chilled cream made from pecans, almonds, cream, sugar, jelly powder, and whipped cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Pecans and almond match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 431 recipes. Both carry 2,3-pentanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Nut Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop or pulverize the pecans and almonds.

  2. In a bowl, combine the chopped nuts with the cream and sugar.

  3. Dissolve the jelly powder in warm water and pour it over the cream mixture.

Set and shape

  1. Place the mixture on ice and stir until it begins to thicken.

  2. Once thickened, gently fold in the whipped cream.

  3. Transfer the mixture into a mold.

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. Pecans + almondtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together431 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Almond + creamtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,130 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

  4. Almond + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,679 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  5. Pecans + creamtop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together706 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

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

What each ingredient does

Pecans
Provide the main nutty flavor and richness of the cream.
Blanched sweet almonds
Add a mild, sweet nut flavor and body to the cream.
Cream
Adds fat and moisture, giving the mixture a smooth, rich texture.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the richness of the nuts and cream.
Jelly powder
Gels the liquid mixture so it holds its shape when chilled and molded.
Whipped cream
Lightens the texture and adds airiness to the set mixture.

The step that matters

Stirring on ice until it begins to thicken. The jelly powder sets as it cools, so the mixture should thicken on ice before the whipped cream is folded in. If it sets too firmly, it will not blend well with the whipped cream and may form lumps, while if it is not cold enough it may not hold its shape in the mold.

Swap the pecans

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

  1. Pistachiofits better
  2. Cashew nutfits better
  3. Brazil nutfits better
  4. Pecansthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against almond, cream, sugar. 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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