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Dessert

Fried Cream

A custard cake made from milk, sugar, eggs, and starch, fried and dusted with powdered sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 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 ↓

Fried 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.

Make the custard

  1. Combine milk and sugar in a double boiler.

  2. Heat until just about to boil.

  3. Mix corn starch and flour with a little cold milk, then stir into the boiling milk mixture.

  4. Cook for 2 minutes, stirring constantly.

  5. Remove from heat and stir in beaten egg yolks.

  6. Return to heat briefly to set the yolks.

  7. Add butter and vanilla extract.

  8. Pour mixture into a buttered pan to a thickness of ⅓ inch.

  9. Once cooled and set, cut into parallelograms about 2 by 3 inches.

Coat and fry

  1. Carefully roll each piece in sifted bread crumbs.

  2. Dip each piece in beaten egg.

  3. Roll again in bread crumbs.

  4. Heat lard in a frying pan.

  5. Fry the coated pieces until golden brown.

Bake and serve

  1. Transfer to the oven at 350°F (175°C) for 4-5 minutes.

  2. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve immediately.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

  5. Corn + vanillatop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,943 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

Egg yolks
Thicken the custard and add richness when gently heated to set.
Corn starch
Thickens the boiling milk into a firm custard that holds its shape when cut.
Flour
Adds body to the starch-thickened custard so it sets firmly.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard that the starch and yolks set.
Butter
Adds fat for a smoother, richer custard texture.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden coating that browns when fried.

The step that matters

Stirring the starch into the boiling milk. Starch must be stirred constantly while cooking, or it clumps and scorches on the base, leaving the custard lumpy. Cooking the starch fully also gives the thickening power needed for the custard to set firm enough to cut and coat.

“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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