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Dessert

Italian Cream

A chilled custard made with wine, brandy, sugar, lemon juice, and heavy cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: White wine and brandy work together. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 620 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Italian Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Make the cream

  1. In a basin, combine the white wine, brandy, powdered sugar, and lemon juice.

  2. Add the heavy cream and whip until well combined.

Set and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a mold through a piece of thin muslin.

  2. Refrigerate until set, then drain off any whey before unmolding.

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. White wine + brandytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together620 recipes

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

  2. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  3. White wine + lemontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,832 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

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

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

  5. White wine + creamtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,760 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

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

What each ingredient does

Heavy cream
Provides fat and richness, and whips into a body that sets into a soft, creamy structure.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavor and helps balance the sweetness and richness.
Powdered sugar
Adds sweetness and dissolves easily into the liquid mixture.
White wine
Contributes liquid and light acidity, adding flavor to the cream.
Brandy
Adds aroma and warmth in small amounts to the flavor of the dessert.

The step that matters

Refrigerate until set, then drain off any whey. The cream needs enough time in the cold to firm up fully before unmolding. Draining off the watery whey that separates keeps the set dessert firm and prevents it from weeping or slumping on the plate.

Swap the lemon

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against white wine, brandy, sugar, 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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