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Dessert

Russian Cream

A chilled custard dessert made with milk, sugar, egg yolks, egg whites, gelatin, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Russian Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Dissolve gelatin in warm water and keep warm until needed.

Make the custard

  1. In a double boiler, combine heated milk, sugar, and beaten egg yolks. Cook until smooth and slightly thick.

  2. Add butter while hot and pour over beaten egg whites, stirring constantly.

  3. Strain the gelatin and mix thoroughly with the mixture.

  4. Flavor to taste.

Chill

  1. Refrigerate.

  2. Best made the day 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.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

  5. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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

Gelatin
Sets the cream so it holds its shape when chilled.
Egg yolks
Thicken the milk mixture and add richness as they cook.
Egg whites
Add airy lightness to the cream once folded in.
Milk
Forms the creamy base that the eggs thicken.
Sugar
Sweetens the cream and balances the richness of the eggs and butter.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, silky mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Cook the yolk and milk mixture until smooth and slightly thick. Egg yolks thicken when heated gently, but overheating can curdle them and leave lumps. Cooking slowly in a double boiler keeps the custard smooth.

“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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