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Dessert

Italian Cream

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Italian Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the gelatin

  1. Soak the gelatin in cold water for 30 minutes.

Make the custard

  1. Boil the milk and stir in the soaked gelatin until dissolved.

  2. Let the mixture cool, then strain it into the beaten eggs.

  3. Add the sugar and vanilla extract, and beat well.

Set and serve

  1. Pour into a mold and refrigerate until set.

  2. Serve with cream and sugar.

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 + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

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

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

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

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

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

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

  5. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

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

Milk
Provides the liquid base and richness that the dessert sets from.
Eggs
Add body and richness to the mixture as they are beaten in.
Gelatine
Sets the liquid into a firm, sliceable dessert when chilled.
Sugar
Adds sweetness to balance the milk and eggs.

The step that matters

Dissolving the gelatine fully in the hot milk. Gelatine only sets when it is completely dissolved and evenly distributed. Undissolved granules leave gritty or weak spots, so the milk should be stirred until no grains remain before cooling.

“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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