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Dessert

Almond Cream

A custard-like dessert made with cream, milk, water, lemon peel, almonds, sugar, egg yolks, and isinglass.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Almond Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Dissolve the isinglass in boiling water.

  2. In a bowl, combine the water, milk, and cream; stir well.

Make the cream

  1. Add the grated lemon peel, powdered almonds, sugar, and beaten egg yolks.

  2. Boil gently for a few minutes, then strain through a fine sieve.

Set and serve

  1. When cool, pour into molds and place on ice 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. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  2. Lemon + almondtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,053 recipes

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

  4. Cream + almondtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,130 recipes

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

  5. Milk + almondtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,800 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Isinglass
Gelling agent that sets the liquid into a firm, sliceable cream when chilled.
Cream
Adds fat and richness, giving the set cream a smooth, soft texture.
Egg yolks
Add richness and help thicken the custard-like base as it heats.
Milk
Provides liquid and body, keeping the set cream soft and creamy.
White sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the almond and lemon flavours.
Sweet almonds
Supply the main almond flavour and a fine, nutty texture.

The step that matters

Boil gently after adding the egg yolks. Egg yolks can scramble and turn grainy if the mixture boils hard. Keeping the heat gentle lets the yolks thicken the base smoothly before it is strained.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, milk, almond, sugar, egg):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, milk, almond, sugar, egg. 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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Cake 41Soup 9Pudding 7Sauce 7Burnt 6Filling 5 See all 69 →

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