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Dessert

Almond Cream

A sweet almond custard made with milk, cream, sugar, almonds, isinglass, and egg yolks.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and sugar 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 ↓

Almond Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the isinglass in cold water for 2 hours.

  2. Blanch the almonds and pound them into a smooth paste, adding a few drops of milk to prevent oiling.

Make the custard

  1. Heat the milk over boiling water with a small piece of lemon peel for 10 minutes.

  2. Beat the egg yolks and pour the hot milk over them.

Finish and set

  1. Add the almond paste and strain the mixture through a sieve.

  2. Stir in the sugar and cream.

  3. Melt the soaked isinglass and mix it in.

  4. Rinse molds with cold water, strain the cream into them, and place on ice.

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

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

  2. Cream + almondtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,130 recipes

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

  3. Milk + almondtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,800 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Sugar + almondtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,679 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

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

What each ingredient does

Milk
Forms the liquid base that gives the cream its body and smoothness.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, soft mouthfeel.
Egg yolks
Thicken the custard and add richness through their fat and proteins.
Isinglass
Sets as it cools, firming the cream so it holds its shape in molds.
Sugar
Sweetens the cream and balances the richness.
Sweet almonds
Ground into a paste, they give the cream its nutty almond flavor and body.

The step that matters

Pour the hot milk over the beaten egg yolks. Adding hot milk gradually while whisking warms the yolks slowly, so they thicken smoothly instead of scrambling into lumps.

Swap the almond

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

  1. Almondthe original
  2. Pecansfits about as well
  3. Pistachiofits less well
  4. Chestnutfits less well

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