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Dessert

American Cream

A custard dessert made with gelatin, milk, eggs, sugar, and vanilla, folded with beaten egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 ↓

American Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Dissolve the gelatin in 1 pint of cold water on the back of the stove, stirring occasionally.

  2. Add 1 pint of sweet milk and bring to a boil.

  3. Beat the yolks of 4 eggs until light, then mix in 1 teaspoon of vanilla and 6 tablespoons of sugar.

  4. Stir the egg mixture into the boiling milk and gelatin.

Finish and set

  1. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites with 5 tablespoons of sugar and 1 tablespoon of vanilla until stiff.

  2. Once the milk mixture is boiling, remove it from the heat and gently fold in the beaten egg whites.

  3. Pour the mixture into a mold or large flat dish and let it cool.

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 + sugartop 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).

Vanilla and sugar 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

Gelatin
Sets the liquid into a soft, sliceable body as it cools.
Egg yolks
Enrich the milk and thicken it slightly, adding richness and a custard-like texture.
Egg whites
Whipped to stiff peaks, they add lightness and airy volume to the set dessert.
Sweet milk
Forms the creamy base that the gelatin and eggs set into.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and helps stabilise the whipped egg whites.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Fold gently off the heat so the whipped foam keeps its air. Vigorous stirring or a hot mixture deflates the whites, leaving a denser dessert.

“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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