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Vanilla Cream Renversee

A chilled vanilla custard dessert set in a mold and served with custard or caramel.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Vanilla Cream Renversee

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard base

  1. Scald the cream over boiling water.

  2. If using a vanilla bean, split it and add it to the cream.

  3. In a bowl, beat the egg and egg yolks with the sugar.

  4. Once the cream is ready, stir it into the egg mixture.

  5. Scrape in the seeds from the vanilla bean, discarding the pod.

Bake in a water bath

  1. Butter a mold that holds about 1½ pints.

  2. Pour the cream mixture into the mold.

  3. Place the mold in a deep saucepan filled with hot water, about two-thirds the depth of the mold.

  4. Cover the saucepan.

  5. Keep it in a hot place without boiling.

  6. Check the cream by shaking the mold.

  7. Touch it with your finger until it is stiffened.

Chill and serve

  1. Leave it in the mold until served, ensuring it is thoroughly chilled.

  2. To serve, turn it out onto a platter or shallow glass dish.

  3. Pour over a rich vanilla custard or caramel.

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 + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  2. Vanilla + sugartop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Vanilla + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,050 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Vanilla + creamtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,301 recipes

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

Vanilla and sugar 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
Enrich the custard and help it set firm and smooth when gently heated.
Egg
Adds structure so the custard sets into a sliceable form.
Cream
Provides fat and richness, giving the set custard a soft, silky texture.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and helps soften its texture.

The step that matters

Keep it in a hot place without boiling. Egg custards set gently. Boiling water or high heat makes the proteins tighten too fast, leaving the custard grainy, watery, or cracked.

“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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