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Dessert

Spanish Cream

A custard-like cream made with egg yolks, milk, gelatin, and flavored with spices, served with cakes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Spanish Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Beat the yolks of 6 eggs with 6 tablespoons of sugar until well combined.

  2. Pour the mixture into 1 quart of whole milk and scald until it thickens into a soft custard.

  3. Dissolve 3/4 ounce of gelatin in 1/2 pint of water, then combine it with the hot custard.

  4. Strain the custard and gelatin mixture, then pour it into molds and set on ice to cool.

Make the cakes

  1. For the cakes, beat together 1/2 cup of butter and 2 cups of sugar until light.

  2. Add 1 cup of milk, then mix in 3 1/2 cups of flour and 2 teaspoons of baking powder.

  3. Fold in the well-beaten whites of the 6 eggs last, adding any spices you prefer.

  4. Bake the cakes, then place them on top of the cream when ready to serve.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Egg yolks
Thicken the custard and add richness as they set with the milk.
Gelatin
Sets the chilled custard so it holds its shape in the mold.
Whole milk
Forms the base of the custard, adding body and creamy flavor.
Flour
Provides structure to the cakes as the batter sets in the oven.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking so the cakes rise and become light.
Egg whites
Trap air when beaten, helping the cakes rise and turn light.

The step that matters

Scalding the custard. Heating the egg yolk and milk mixture gently until it thickens thickens the proteins without curdling. Overheating can scramble the yolks, leaving a grainy texture instead of a smooth custard.

“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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