Why it works: Ginger and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,380 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓
Rainbow Cream
Ingredients
Directions
Set the jelly
Set the red and green jelly in shallow pans.
Line a plain Charlotte mold very thinly with the plain jelly.
Cut little rounds from the red and green jelly.
Cover the mold entirely with the rounds.
Set with more plain jelly.
Make the cream
Whip the cream to stiff peaks.
Add the sugar and pineapple essence.
Melt the gelatine in a little milk or water.
Add the melted gelatine while hot to the cream.
When the mixture begins to set, spoon it into the remaining plain jelly.
Cut up the remaining green and red jelly.
Mix the cut jelly into the mixture.
Pour this into the mold.
Turn out when set.
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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Ginger + cinnamontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together6,380 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Pineapple + gingertop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together559 recipes
Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
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Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together30,779 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Pineapple + cinnamontop 11% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together549 recipes
Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).
Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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
- Cream
- Whipped to stiff peaks, it forms the light, airy body of the dessert.
- Gelatine
- Sets the cream mixture so it holds its shape when turned out of the mold.
- Wine jelly
- Forms the clear, colored lining and layers that give the dessert its rainbow appearance.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness to the whipped cream.
The step that matters
Add the melted gelatine while hot to the cream. Gelatine must be fully melted and still liquid when added, so it mixes evenly. Once it begins to set, lumps can form and the mixture will not set uniformly in the mold.
Swap the pineapple
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (wine, cream, sugar, ginger, cinnamon):
- Vanillafits better
- Orangefits better
- Pearfits better
- Pineapplethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against wine, cream, sugar, ginger, cinnamon. 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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