Skip to main content
Dessert

Persian Cream

A chilled gelatin dessert made with sweet milk, cream, jam, and lemon juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Persian Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Make the cream

  1. Dissolve the gelatine in the sweet milk.

  2. Strain the mixture into a saucepan and add the sugar.

  3. Bring to a boil, then stir in the fresh cream.

Combine and set

  1. Slowly mix this into the jam or preserved fruit until smooth.

  2. Stir until cold to prevent the fruit from sinking.

  3. Beat the mixture briskly, then add the strained lemon juice.

  4. Pour into a mold and refrigerate for 12 to 14 hours before serving.

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

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

  2. Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

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

  4. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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 into a firm, sliceable cream once chilled.
Sweet milk
Forms the liquid base that the gelatine sets.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the tartness of the fruit and lemon.
Fresh sweet cream
Adds richness and a smooth, creamy texture.
Jam or preserved fruit
Provides the main fruit flavour and sweetness.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour of the dessert.

The step that matters

Stir until cold to prevent the fruit from sinking. Gelatine begins to thicken as it cools, so the mixture must be stirred until it is thick enough to suspend the jam or fruit evenly. Pouring it too early lets the heavier fruit sink to the bottom.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, sugar, cream):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, sugar, cream. 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.

You might also like

Lemon CakeLemon Cake228 recipesLemon IceLemon Ice147 recipesLemon SherbetLemon Sherbet103 recipesLemon CustardLemon Custard64 recipes