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Dessert

Spanish Cream

A gelatin-based custard dessert made with milk, eggs, sugar, vanilla, macaroons, and sherry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Spanish Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Dissolve the gelatine in the milk.

  2. Pour the mixture over the well-beaten yolks of 4 eggs mixed with 4 tablespoons of sugar.

  3. Heat until it thickens slightly, then remove from heat.

Finish and set

  1. Fold in the whipped whites of 4 eggs mixed with 3 tablespoons of sugar.

  2. Add the vanilla and broken macaroons soaked in sherry.

  3. Pour into molds rinsed 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. Vanilla + sherrytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together506 recipes

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

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

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

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

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

  5. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 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 liquid custard into a firm, sliceable dessert as it cools.
Eggs
Yolks thicken the custard and whipped whites lighten its texture.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard and adds richness.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and helps stabilise the whipped egg whites.
Macaroons
Soak up sherry and add a soft, chewy texture with almond flavour.

The step that matters

Heat until it thickens slightly, then remove from heat.. Egg yolks thicken as they warm, but overheating can curdle them and leave a grainy custard. Stop heating once it just coats a spoon, since it will thicken further as it cools and sets.

“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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