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Dessert

Bavarian Cream

A custard dessert made with milk, sugar, gelatin, eggs, and flavoring.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and gelatin are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,778 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Bavarian Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Heat the milk in a saucepan until boiling.

  2. Beat the egg yolks.

  3. Stir the beaten yolks into the boiling milk.

  4. Dissolve the gelatin in a little hot water.

  5. Add the dissolved gelatin to the mixture.

Fold and set

  1. Beat the egg whites until stiff.

  2. Fold the stiff whites into the mixture when it is cool.

  3. Whip cream if desired.

  4. Fold the whipped cream into the mixture for better texture.

  5. Add flavoring to taste.

  6. Pour the mixture into molds.

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. Sugar + gelatintop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,778 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

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

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

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

  4. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

  5. Milk + gelatintop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,054 recipes

    Shared aroma: maltol (caramel, sweet).

Milk and sugar 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

Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard that the other ingredients are combined into.
Eggs
Yolks thicken the custard when stirred into hot milk; whites lighten the mixture when folded in.
Gelatin
Sets the mixture as it cools so it holds its shape in the molds.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the flavor of the milk and eggs.
Cream (in the method)
Adds richness and a softer texture when folded in whipped.

The step that matters

Stir the beaten yolks into the boiling milk. Adding hot milk to yolks slowly, or adding yolks to boiling milk without constant stirring, can scramble the eggs and leave lumps. Gentle, steady stirring keeps the custard smooth and lets it thicken evenly.

“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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