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Egg and Brandy Cream

A custard made with egg yolks, cream, sugar, brandy, almonds, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and sugar 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 ↓

Egg and Brandy Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard base

  1. Beat the yolks of the eggs with the cream.

  2. Add the sugar and brandy, mixing well.

  3. Blanch and pound the sweet and bitter almonds, then boil them in a few spoonfuls of milk.

  4. Once cooled, add the almond mixture to the egg mixture and stir thoroughly.

Cook and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a well-lined saucepan with the quart of cream.

  2. Stir continuously until thickened, but do not let it boil.

  3. Serve in custard cups with a ratafia on top.

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. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  2. Brandy + milktop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,738 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  3. Cream + brandytop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,635 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

  4. Cream + almondtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,130 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

  5. Almond + milktop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,800 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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 give it a rich, set texture as they cook.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, silky mouthfeel to the custard.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and softens the flavour of the brandy.
French brandy
Adds aroma and a warm, spirited flavour to the custard.
Almonds
Contribute nutty aroma and flavour, with bitter almonds adding depth.

The step that matters

Stir continuously without letting it boil. Egg yolks thicken as they heat, but if the custard boils the proteins curdle and it turns grainy. Stirring keeps heat even so it thickens smoothly.

“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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