Why it works: Milk and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 88,785 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Spanish Cream
Ingredients
Directions
Make the custard
Soak the jelly square in a little water until melted in the oven.
Boil the milk and add it to the melted jelly.
Beat the yolks of the eggs with the sugar and stir into the milk and jelly mixture until it resembles thick cream.
Set and serve
Whip the egg whites until very stiff, then fold them into the cream once it is cold and beginning to set.
Pour the mixture into a wetted mold and let it set until stiff.
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.
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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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
- Jelly square
- Gelatin that melts into the milk and sets the cream into a firm, sliceable body.
- Egg yolks
- Enrich the custard with fat and richness, and thicken it slightly as they are stirred in.
- Egg whites
- Whipped to foam and folded in, they make the set cream light and airy.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base of the cream and carries the gelatin and sugar.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and balances the richness of the yolks and milk.
The step that matters
Folding in the egg whites. If the cream is still warm or too liquid, the whites deflate and the foam collapses; folding once the mixture is cold and beginning to set keeps the air trapped for a light texture.
“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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