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Dessert

Velvet Cream

Velvet Cream is a custard-like dessert made with milk, corn starch, sugar, butter, eggs, and flavoring, baked until browned.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Velvet Cream

Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Velvet Cream

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the custard

  1. In a saucepan, combine milk and butter over medium heat.

  2. In a bowl, mix corn starch and sugar.

  3. Add enough milk to moisten.

  4. Add egg yolks to the mixture and beat well.

  5. Once the milk is warm, combine all ingredients and stir continuously until thickened.

  6. Add flavoring to taste.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour into a dish.

  2. Top with beaten egg whites mixed with 6 teaspoons of sugar.

  3. Place in the oven at 350°F (175°C) to brown lightly.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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 + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Milk + corntop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,955 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

  3. Corn + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,345 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard that the starch thickens.
Corn starch
Thickens the milk into a smooth, sliceable custard as it heats.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and helps stabilise the egg white topping.
Eggs
Egg yolks enrich and set the custard; whites form the browned topping.

The step that matters

Stir continuously until thickened. Cornstarch thickens only when heated and stirred, and it can scorch on the bottom of the pan or form lumps if left unattended. Constant stirring keeps the custard smooth and evenly thickened.

“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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