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Dessert

Spinach Cream

A chilled dessert made with spinach‑infused cream poured over biscuits and candied fruit.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Spinach Cream

Why it works: Spinach and biscuit share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 58 recipes. Both carry nonanal, which smells fat, citrus. The science ↓

Spinach Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. In a bowl, break the yolks of the eggs and remove any specks.

  2. Beat the yolks well, then stir in the hot milk and thick cream.

  3. Sweeten the mixture to taste and pour it into a saucepan with the cinnamon.

  4. Stir over gentle heat until it begins to thicken.

  5. Add the spinach juice and stir until the mixture is evenly colored.

Assemble and serve

  1. Slice the sponge biscuits and place them in a glass dish.

  2. Pour the cream mixture over the biscuits and top with candied fruit.

  3. Serve cold.

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. Spinach + biscuittop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together58 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  2. Cinnamon + biscuittop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together312 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  3. Cinnamon + spinachtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together179 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  4. Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Cream + biscuittop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,235 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Thicken the cream as they set over gentle heat and enrich its texture.
Thick cream
Adds richness and a smooth, creamy body to the custard.
Hot milk
Dilutes the yolks slightly and helps the custard stay smooth as it thickens.
Spinach juice
Gives the cream its green color and a subtle vegetable flavor.

The step that matters

Stir over gentle heat until it begins to thicken. Egg yolks set at low temperatures, but high heat can curdle them into grainy lumps. Gentle, constant stirring keeps the custard smooth.

Swap the cinnamon

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Cinnamonthe original
  4. Tarragonfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, milk, cream, spinach, biscuit. 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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