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Dessert

Italian Cream

A chilled custard dessert made with cream, milk, sherry wine, vanilla extract, and gelatin.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

Italian Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cream

  1. In a large bowl, combine the cream and milk, then sweeten to taste.

  2. Add the sherry wine and vanilla extract, and beat with a whisk until frothy.

  3. Remove the froth as it rises until all is converted into froth.

Set and mould

  1. Dissolve the gelatine in a little warm water.

  2. Set the frothed cream in a tub of ice.

  3. Pour the dissolved gelatine into the cream and stir constantly until it thickens.

  4. Pour the mixture into molds and place in a cool place to set.

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. Sherry + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together506 recipes

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

  3. Milk + sherrytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,479 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).

  4. Cream + vanillatop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,301 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  5. Cream + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

Cream and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,301 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
Provides richness and fat, giving the dessert its smooth, creamy body.
Milk
Adds liquid and dilutes the cream, keeping the texture lighter and less dense.
Gelatine
Sets the liquid cream into a firm, sliceable structure once chilled.
Sherry wine
Adds acidity and aroma, flavouring the cream with a mellow, nutty note.

The step that matters

Pour the dissolved gelatine into the cream and stir constantly until it thickens.. Gelatine must be fully dissolved and evenly distributed while the cream is cold; if it sets in lumps or clumps, the texture becomes grainy and uneven once chilled.

Swap the vanilla

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, milk, sherry, wine):

  1. Vanillathe original
  2. Strawberryfits about as well
  3. Applefits less well
  4. Pineapplefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, milk, sherry, wine. 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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