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Dessert

Spanish Cream

A gelatin-based custard dessert made with milk, egg yolks, sugar, and flavored with vanilla or lemon.

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 ↓

Spanish Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the custard

  1. Soak the gelatine in the milk for 1 hour.

  2. Heat the milk and gelatine mixture on the stove, stirring well as it warms.

  3. Beat the egg yolks with the sugar until light and fluffy.

  4. Add the egg yolk mixture to the scalding milk, stirring continuously until it reaches boiling point.

  5. Strain the mixture through a fine cloth or muslin.

Set and serve

  1. When almost cold, pour it into a mold that has been wet with cold water.

  2. Flavor with vanilla or lemon and refrigerate until set.

  3. Serve with whipped cream.

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

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

  3. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  4. Vanilla + creamtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,301 recipes

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

  5. Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

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

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 milk mixture into a firm, sliceable cream when chilled.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the gelatine and egg yolks set in.
Egg yolks
Thicken and enrich the cream, adding body and a smooth texture.
Sugar
Sweetens the cream and helps the beaten yolks become light and fluffy.

The step that matters

Adding the egg yolk mixture to the scalding milk. Stirring continuously keeps the egg yolks from scrambling in hot spots. Bringing the custard to boiling thickens the yolks smoothly, while the gelatine sets the cream once chilled.

“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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