Why it works: Milk and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 88,785 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Spanish Cream
Ingredients
Directions
Make the custard
Soak the gelatine in the milk for 40 minutes to 1 hour.
Heat the mixture.
Stir the mixture until the gelatine is fully dissolved.
Beat the egg yolks and 4 tablespoons of sugar together.
Stir the beaten yolks and sugar into the mixture until it reaches boiling point.
Beat the egg whites with 4 tablespoons of sugar until frothy.
Remove the mixture from the heat.
Gently fold in the beaten egg whites and sugar.
Add flavoring to taste.
Set and chill
Pour the mixture into a mold.
Refrigerate the mold.
If made in summer, place the mold on ice to ensure it sets properly.
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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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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
- Gelatine
- Sets the liquid into a soft, sliceable body as it cools.
- Egg yolks
- Enrich the milk and add richness and body to the custard.
- Egg whites
- Whipped to foam, they lighten the texture of the set cream.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base that the gelatine and eggs set into.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cream and helps stabilise the whipped egg whites.
The step that matters
Folding in the egg whites. Whipped whites deflate easily, so fold them in gently after removing the mixture from the heat. Vigorous stirring knocks out the air that gives the cream its light texture.
“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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