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Dessert

Italian Cream

A gelatin-based custard dessert flavored with almond extract.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,800 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Italian Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the gelatine in cold water until soft.

  2. Scald the milk in a heatproof container set in hot water.

  3. Stir the softened gelatine into the milk until dissolved.

  4. Beat the egg yolks with sugar and stir into the milk mixture.

Cook and set

  1. Cook gently, being careful not to let it curdle.

  2. Flavor with almond extract and pour into a cold, wet mold.

  3. Refrigerate for 10 hours before serving.

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 + almondtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,800 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Sugar + almondtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,679 recipes

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

  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).

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

Gelatine
Sets the milk and egg custard into a firm, sliceable texture when chilled.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that gives the dessert its creamy body.
Egg yolks
Thicken the custard and add richness and a smooth, creamy texture.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and balances the richness of the yolks and milk.

The step that matters

Cook gently, being careful not to let it curdle.. Egg yolks thicken when heated gently, but high or uneven heat scrambles the proteins, causing curdling and a grainy texture that cannot be smoothed out.

Swap the almond

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

  1. Pecansfits about as well
  2. Almondthe original
  3. Cocoafits about as well
  4. Walnutfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, egg, 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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