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Dessert

Swiss Cream

A chilled dessert of layered macaroons, spongecakes, and sweetened cream, flavored with lemon or vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Swiss Cream

Why it works: Lemon and angelica match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 189 recipes. Both carry (e,e)-2,4-decadienal, which smells fatty, deep fried. The science ↓

Swiss Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. Crumble the macaroons and spongecakes and layer them in a glass dish.

  2. Pour the sherry over the crumbs.

  3. Spread jam on top if desired.

Make the custard

  1. Simmer the lemon rind or vanilla in the milk until flavored.

  2. Add the cream and sugar to the flavored milk and mix well.

  3. Mix the cornflour with a little cold milk.

  4. Gradually add the cornflour mixture to the mixture.

  5. Stir the mixture over gentle heat until it boils.

  6. Pour the mixture out and stir until almost cold.

  7. Add the lemon juice.

Assemble and chill

  1. Pour the cream over the cakes in the dish.

  2. Decorate the top with jelly, jam, or angelica strips.

  3. Refrigerate for 3-4 hours before serving.

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. Lemon + angelicatop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together189 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

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

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

  3. Sherry + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,479 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).

  4. Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,053 recipes

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

  5. Sherry + lemontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,273 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, velvety texture to the set dessert.
Cornflour
Thickens the milk mixture as its starch swells when heated to a boil.
Macaroons
Form the crumbly base layer that the cream is poured over.
Spongecakes
Soak up the sherry and form the soft base layer.
Sherry
Soaks into the crumbs and adds aroma and flavor.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the sweetness of the cream.

The step that matters

Stir the cornflour mixture as it comes to a boil. Cornflour only thickens fully when heated to boiling, and constant stirring spreads the starch evenly so the custard stays smooth instead of lumpy or raw-tasting.

Swap the angelica

The recipe marks angelica as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sherry, milk, lemon, cream, sugar):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Peppermintfits about as well
  4. Angelicathe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sherry, milk, lemon, cream, sugar. 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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