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Dessert

Swiss Cream

A custard dessert with sponge cakes, raspberry jam, sherry, and almonds.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Swiss Cream

Why it works: Almond and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,673 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Swiss Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. Split the sponge cakes.

  2. Spread the cakes with raspberry jam.

  3. Place the cakes in a glass dish.

  4. Soak the cakes with sherry.

Make the custard

  1. Mix the flour with a little cold milk.

  2. Heat the remaining milk with the lemon rind.

  3. Stir the heated milk into the blended flour.

  4. Add the beaten eggs and sugar.

  5. Stir until boiling.

  6. Cook thoroughly.

  7. Remove from heat.

  8. Stir occasionally until well off boiling point.

Assemble and decorate

  1. Pour the custard over the sponge cakes.

  2. Blanch the almonds.

  3. Cut the almonds into strips.

  4. Stick the almond strips into the custard.

  5. Decorate as desired.

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. Almond + flourtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Almond + raspberrytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together552 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  3. Raspberry + lemontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,109 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  4. Almond + lemontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Sherry + raspberrytop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together109 recipes

    Shared aroma: damascenone (apple, rose).

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

What each ingredient does

Penny sponge cakes
Form the base layer that soaks up sherry and holds the custard.
Flour
Thickens the milk mixture so the custard sets smooth and firm.
Eggs
Thicken the custard as they cook and add richness to it.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard, which thickens when heated.
Sherry
Moistens the sponge cakes and adds a fragrant, slightly acidic flavour.
Raspberry jam
Adds sweetness and fruity flavour between the sponge layers.

The step that matters

Stir until boiling, then cook thoroughly. Flour starch must be fully boiled to swell and thicken the custard; undercooked starch leaves a raw, pasty taste. Stirring constantly prevents the eggs from scrambling on the base of the pan.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, sherry, almond, egg, milk, raspberry, flour):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Peachfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, sherry, almond, egg, milk, raspberry, flour. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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