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Dessert

Tsarina Cream

A chilled sweet cream dessert flavored with sherry, vanilla, and almonds, set with gelatin.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Vanilla and almond match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,961 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Tsarina Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Whip and set

  1. Whip the cream to a solid froth and color it pale green with food coloring.

  2. Soak the gelatine in cold water until soft, then dissolve it over hot water.

  3. Strain the dissolved gelatine into the whipped cream and place the bowl in cold water.

  4. Stir lightly occasionally, and when it begins to thicken, add the powdered sugar.

  5. Gradually add the sherry, allowing it to thicken slightly after each addition.

Finish and serve

  1. Stir in the vanilla and chopped almonds.

  2. Pour the mixture into fancy cups and garnish with bits of angelica or citron.

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. Vanilla + almondtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,961 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Almond + angelicatop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together135 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  3. Vanilla + angelicatop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together170 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  4. Sherry + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together506 recipes

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

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

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

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

Heavy sweet cream
Whipped into a foam that forms the light, airy body of the dessert.
Gelatine
Sets the whipped cream so it holds its shape when served.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the cream and dissolves easily into it.
Sherry
Adds flavor and a little liquid, thickening the cream as it is stirred in.
Blanched almonds
Add crunch and a nutty flavor against the soft cream.

The step that matters

Adding the dissolved gelatine to the cream. Gelatine sets as it cools, so it must be dissolved fully and poured into the cream while the cream is still whipped, then chilled gently over cold water. If the gelatine cools too far or is added in lumps, it forms strands or specks instead of a smooth, evenly set cream.

Swap the angelica

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Angelicathe original
  4. Peppermintfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, sugar, sherry, vanilla, almond. 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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