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Dessert

Russian Cream

A chilled custard dessert made with sugar, orange juice, eggs, wine, rum, gelatin, and whipped cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Orange and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Russian Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Beat together the sugar, orange juice, eggs, white wine, and rum until well combined.

  2. Pour the mixture into a saucepan.

  3. Stir over low heat until it thickens.

  4. Add the dissolved gelatin.

  5. Remove from heat and whisk briskly.

  6. Fold in the beaten egg whites.

Set and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a mold rinsed with cold water.

  2. Refrigerate until set.

  3. Turn out the cream onto a serving plate.

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. Orange + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. White wine + rumtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together113 recipes

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

  3. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  4. Lemon + white winetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,832 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  5. Orange + rumtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together801 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the acidity of the juices and wine.
Eggs
Thicken the mixture when gently heated and add richness and a light body.
Gelatine
Sets the liquid mixture so it holds its shape when chilled and turned out.
Orange juice
Adds fruity acidity and flavour to the cream.
White wine
Adds acidity and a fragrant, aromatic note.
Rum
Adds aroma and a warm, distinctive flavour.

The step that matters

Stir over low heat until it thickens. Egg proteins set at moderate temperatures, so overheating can scramble the eggs into lumps. Gentle, steady heat thickens the custard smoothly before the gelatine is added.

Swap the orange

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, egg, lemon, white wine, cream, rum):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Pineapplefits about as well
  3. Raspberryfits about as well
  4. Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, lemon, white wine, cream, rum. 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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