Why it works: Egg and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 88,785 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Italian Cream
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Soak the gelatin in ½ cup cold milk for 30 minutes.
Boil the remaining milk.
Make the custard
Stir in the beaten egg yolks, sugar, and soaked gelatin when the milk is boiling.
Remove from heat when the custard begins to thicken.
Pour into a deep dish with the beaten egg whites and mix well.
Finish and chill
Flavor to taste and pour into molds.
Refrigerate for 4 hours to cool.
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.
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Egg + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar and milk 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
- Eggs
- Yolks thicken the custard, and whites add airy lightness to the set dessert.
- Gelatine
- Sets the liquid mixture so it holds its shape when chilled.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base that the eggs and gelatine thicken and set.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and balances the richness of the eggs and milk.
The step that matters
Remove from heat when the custard begins to thicken. Egg yolks coagulate at high heat, so overheating can curdle or scramble the custard. Taking it off the heat as soon as it thickens keeps it smooth and creamy.
“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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