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Dessert

Orange Cream

A chilled orange-flavored custard made with isinglass, sugar, cream, and orange and lemon juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Orange Cream

Why it works: Orange and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Orange Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Make the orange mixture

  1. Dissolve the isinglass in water over low heat.

  2. Add the strained juice of the oranges and lemon, along with the loaf sugar rubbed on the fruit rinds.

  3. Stir gently until the sugar is dissolved, then remove from heat.

Set and serve

  1. When nearly cold, mix in the thick cream.

  2. Pour the mixture into a damp mold and place it in a cool, airy spot until firm.

  3. Serve the cream in a glass 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.

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. Orange + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

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

  3. Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

  4. Orange + sugartop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together19,212 recipes

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

  5. Orange + creamtop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,170 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

Lemon and sugar 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

Isinglass
Gelatinous setting agent that firms the liquid into a sliceable cream.
Thick cream
Adds fat and richness, giving a softer, creamier texture to the set mixture.
Loaf sugar
Sweetens the mixture and balances the sharpness of the citrus juice.
Oranges
Provide the main juice, flavour and aroma of the dessert.

The step that matters

When nearly cold, mix in the thick cream.. If the mixture is still hot, the cream can separate or thin out, and if it is already set, the cream will not blend evenly. Cooling it to nearly cold keeps the cream smooth and evenly distributed before the isinglass sets.

Swap the orange

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

  1. Vanillafits about as well
  2. Orangethe original
  3. Raspberryfits about as well
  4. Limefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against lemon, 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.

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Pie 18Custard 17Pudding 10Ice 5Sauce 4Dessert 3 See all 99 →

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