Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓
Bavarian Cream
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Soak the gelatin in cold water until soft.
Chill and whip the cream until you have 3 pints.
Make the custard
Boil the remaining cream, adding enough milk to make a total of 1 pint.
Beat the egg yolks, then add the sugar and salt.
Pour the boiling milk over the egg mixture and mix well.
Return to a double boiler and cook for about 2 minutes, stirring constantly.
Add the soaked gelatin and strain into a pan set in ice water.
Finish and mold
When cool, add the vanilla and wine.
Stir until it begins to thicken, then quickly fold in the whipped cream.
Pour into molds that have been wet with cold water.
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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Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,187 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
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Gelatin + creamtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,628 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
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Gelatin + sugartop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,778 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together35,032 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Sugar and vanilla 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
- Gelatin
- Sets the cream mixture so it holds its shape when unmolded.
- Cream
- Whipped, it adds airy lightness and richness to the set dessert.
- Egg yolks
- Thicken the custard base and add richness and colour.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base of the custard, diluting the richness of the cream.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the custard and balances the egg flavour.
The step that matters
Fold in the whipped cream at the right thickness. Stir the custard only until it just begins to thicken, then fold the whipped cream in quickly. If the custard is too runny, the cream deflates and the dessert will not set light; if it is too firm, the cream forms lumps and the texture turns uneven.
“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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