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Dessert

Spanish Cream

A gelatin-based custard dessert made with milk, eggs, sugar, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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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 ↓

Spanish Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the gelatine in a portion of the milk.

  2. Beat the yolks of the eggs and mix in 5 tablespoons of powdered sugar.

  3. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites and add 5 tablespoons of powdered sugar.

Make the custard

  1. Heat the milk in a tin pail set in a kettle of boiling water.

  2. Once hot, add the soaked gelatine and stir until dissolved.

  3. Add the egg yolk mixture and cook until thick like custard.

Finish and set

  1. Remove from heat, flavor with vanilla, and gently fold in the beaten egg whites.

  2. Pour the mixture into rinsed molds and refrigerate until set.

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 + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

  5. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

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

Gelatine
Sets the cream into a firm, sliceable form as it cools.
Egg yolks
Thicken the milk into a custard and add richness.
Egg whites
Whipped and folded in, they add lightness and airy texture.
Milk
Forms the creamy base that the gelatine and yolks set into.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the cream and dissolves easily into the yolks and whites.

The step that matters

Cook the custard until thick, then fold in the whites gently. Yolks thicken with gentle heat and can scramble if overheated, so the custard should be cooked slowly over the water bath. Folding rather than stirring keeps the beaten whites from deflating, which preserves the light texture.

“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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