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
Make the custard
Dissolve the gelatine in ½ cup of milk.
Add 1 cup of milk and the yolks of 4 eggs.
Stir while boiling and sweeten to taste.
Remove from heat and flavor with vanilla and brandy.
Set and serve
Fold in the beaten egg whites.
Pour into a mold to harden.
Serve with whipped cream.
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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Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,187 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
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Vanilla + brandytop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together806 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Vanilla + creamtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together12,301 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).
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Milk + brandytop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,738 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).
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Brandy + creamtop 16% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,635 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).
Vanilla and cream 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
- Gelatine
- Sets the liquid custard into a firm, sliceable dessert as it cools.
- Egg yolks
- Thicken the milk mixture and add richness to the custard.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base that the gelatine and eggs set into a custard.
- Egg whites
- Beaten and folded in, they lighten the texture of the set dessert.
- Brandy
- Adds aroma and flavor to the custard.
The step that matters
Stir while boiling. Egg yolks thicken as they heat but can scramble if overheated or boiled too hard, leaving a grainy custard. Keep the heat controlled and stir constantly.
“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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