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Dessert

Velvet Cream

A gelatin-based dessert made with wine, lemon, sugar, cream, and set in a mold.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Velvet Cream

Why it works: Sugar and cream 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 ↓

Velvet Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. Combine ¾ box of Cox's Gelatine with 1½ cups of white wine.

  2. Add the rind and juice of 1 lemon, and let it sit for 1 hour.

  3. Heat the mixture and stir in ¾ pound of white sugar until dissolved.

  4. Strain the mixture, then let it cool.

Finish and set

  1. While cooling, pour in 1 quart of cream, beating vigorously until thick like soft custard.

  2. Pour into a mold 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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  2. White wine + lemontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,832 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  3. White wine + creamtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,760 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

  4. Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

  5. Lemon + creamtop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,640 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Lemon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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

Cox's gelatine
Sets the liquid into a firm, sliceable body as it chills.
Cream
Adds richness and a soft, smooth texture to the set dessert.
White sugar
Sweetens the dessert and balances the acidity of the lemon and wine.
White wine
Adds liquid and flavor to the base before it is set.
Lemon
Adds bright acidity and aroma that cut through the richness of the cream.

The step that matters

Beating the cream into the cooling mixture. Cream must be beaten while the gelatine base is cooling but still liquid. If the base is too cold it sets in lumps, and if it is too warm the cream will not thicken evenly and may separate.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (white wine, sugar, cream):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Strawberryfits better
  3. Raspberryfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against white wine, sugar, cream. 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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