Why it works: Sugar and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓
Bavarian Cream
Ingredients
Directions
Make the jelly
Pour 1 pint of cold water over 1 box of gelatine and let it stand for 1 hour.
Add 1½ pints of boiling water and 2 cups of sugar; stir until dissolved.
When nearly cold, flavor with vanilla.
Whip and combine
Churn 1½ quarts of rich cream until frothy.
Beat the froth into the jelly when it is almost cold.
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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Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together35,032 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Cream + vanillatop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together12,301 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).
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 liquid into a firm, sliceable cream once chilled.
- Rich cream
- Provides fat and richness, and whipped into froth it lightens the texture.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the dessert and dissolves into the hot liquid base.
The step that matters
Beat the froth into the jelly when it is almost cold. If the jelly is still warm, the cream will deflate and melt, and if it has already set, the mixture will lump instead of blending smoothly. Gelatine begins to set as it cools, so timing the addition at almost cold keeps the mixture airy and even.
“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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