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Dessert

Ratafia, Iced

A chilled dessert made with gelatine, egg yolks, milk, ratafias, sugar, brandy, cream, and candied fruit.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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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 ↓

Ratafia, Iced

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard base

  1. Soak the gelatine in water for 30 minutes.

  2. Beat the egg yolks with the milk.

  3. Add the grated rind, ratafias, sugar, and brandy.

  4. Stir the mixture over low heat until it thickens.

  5. Rub it through a fine sieve.

  6. Mix in the dissolved gelatine and candied fruit.

Set and serve

  1. Add the thick cream and beat thoroughly.

  2. Pour into a damp mold and set on ice until firm.

  3. Carefully turn out when set.

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 + brandytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,738 recipes

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

  4. Brandy + creamtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,635 recipes

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

  5. Egg + brandytop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,340 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetoin (butter, cream).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Gelatine
Sets the mixture into a firm, sliceable structure once chilled.
Egg yolks
Thicken the custard base and add richness and smooth texture.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard and adds creaminess.
Ratafias
Provide the characteristic almond-like flavour of the dessert.
Brandy
Adds aroma and flavour depth to the set mixture.
Thick cream
Adds fat and body, giving a lighter, softer texture.

The step that matters

Rub it through a fine sieve. Cooked egg yolk custard can contain small lumps of set egg. Straining removes them, giving the smooth texture the set dessert depends on.

Swap the lemon

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, milk, sugar, brandy, 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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