Skip to main content
Dessert

Palace Cream

A custard-like dessert made with egg yolks, cream, brandy, sugar, gelatine, and vanilla, set in a mould.

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

Why it works: Sugar and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Palace Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Make the cream

  1. Mix the egg yolks, cream, brandy, and castor sugar in a bowl.

  2. Pour the mixture into a jug and place it in a saucepan of boiling water.

  3. Stir until the mixture thickens.

  4. Add the essence of vanilla and soaked gelatine, stirring for a few more minutes.

Set and serve

  1. Turn the mixture into a wet mould.

  2. Once cold, turn it out of the mould and decorate with candied fruit or angelica.

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

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

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

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

  3. Brandy + vanillatop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together806 recipes

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

  4. Cream + vanillatop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,301 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

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

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

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 as they cook gently and set the cream.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, soft texture to the set dessert.
Castor sugar
Sweetens the cream and adds body to the mixture.
Soaked gelatine
Sets the cooled mixture so it holds its shape when turned out.

The step that matters

Stir until the mixture thickens. Egg yolks set at gentle heat and can scramble if the water boils hard or the mixture overheats. Keep the jug over simmering, not boiling, water and stir constantly so the custard 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.

You might also like

Vanilla Ice CreamVanilla Ice Cream108 recipesBrandy PeachesBrandy Peaches68 recipesBrandy CreamBrandy Cream21 recipesBrandy PuddingBrandy Pudding13 recipes