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Dessert

Ginger Cream

A custard dessert made with cream, milk, sugar, egg yolks, gelatin, and preserved ginger.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Ginger Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Boil the milk and sugar together.

  2. Slowly add the beaten egg yolks, stirring over low heat until the mixture thickens.

Set and mould

  1. Melt the gelatine in a separate pan over low heat.

  2. Cool the custard, then add the melted gelatine, preserved ginger, syrup, and cream.

  3. When the mixture is nearly set, add chopped ginger and pour it into a wet 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. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  2. Sugar + gingertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together14,054 recipes

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

  3. Cream + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

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

  5. Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

Sugar and ginger barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 14,054 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 custard as they set on gentle heat, adding richness.
Gelatine
Sets the cooled custard into a firm, sliceable dessert.
Cream
Adds fat for a smooth, rich mouthfeel.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the custard is built on.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard base.
Preserved ginger
Provides the main flavour and a warm aroma.

The step that matters

Slowly add the egg yolks over low heat. Egg yolk proteins thicken the custard as they warm, but overheating or adding them too fast makes them scramble and curdle. Gentle heat and constant stirring keep the custard smooth.

Swap the ginger

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cinnamonfits better
  3. Gingerthe original
  4. Peppermintfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, sugar, milk, egg. 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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