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Dessert

Russian Cream

A custard dessert made with gelatin, milk, eggs, sugar, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Russian Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Soak the gelatine in the milk over low heat, stirring as it warms.

  2. In a separate bowl, beat the egg yolks with the sugar until light.

  3. Add the yolk mixture to the scalding milk and heat to boiling, stirring constantly.

Set and mold

  1. Remove from heat and immediately fold in the beaten egg whites.

  2. Flavor with vanilla and pour into a mold that has been wet with cold water.

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 + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

  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).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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 cream into a firm, sliceable shape as it cools.
Eggs
Egg yolks thicken the milk and enrich it; beaten whites add lightness.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the gelatine and eggs set into a cream.
Sugar
Sweetens the cream and balances the richness of the eggs and milk.

The step that matters

Folding in the beaten egg whites. Fold the whites in right after removing the pan from heat, while the mixture is still warm but not cooking. Heat would scramble the eggs, and waiting too long lets the gelatine set before the whites are fully incorporated, leaving lumps and uneven 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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