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Dessert

German Cream

A lemon and brandy cream made by infusing cream with lemon rind, boiling, and whisking.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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 ↓

German Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Infuse and strain

  1. Combine the cream, sugar, and lemon rind in a saucepan.

  2. Let the mixture sit near the fire for 30 minutes to infuse the lemon flavor.

  3. Bring the mixture to a boil.

  4. Strain the mixture.

  5. Let the strained mixture cool.

Flavor and serve

  1. Add the lemon juice and brandy to the cooled mixture.

  2. Pour the cream back and forth between two jugs from a height for 20 minutes.

  3. Transfer the cream to the serving dish.

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

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

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

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

  4. Sugar + brandytop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together11,939 recipes

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

  5. Lemon + brandytop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,351 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

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

Cream
Provides the rich body and fat that give the finished dish its smooth, thick texture.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the acidity of the lemon and brandy.
Lemon rind
Contributes aromatic oils that flavor the cream during infusion.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity and bright citrus flavor to the rich cream.
Brandy
Adds aroma and a warm, spirited flavor to the finished cream.

The step that matters

Pouring the cream back and forth between jugs. Pouring from a height aerates the cream and helps it thicken and lighten in texture. Doing it too gently or for too short a time can leave the cream dense and flat.

Swap the lemon

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

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

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