Skip to main content
Dessert

Spanish Cream

A custard-like dessert made with gelatine, milk, eggs, sugar, and flavoring.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Milk and coffee are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,202 recipes. Both carry 4-heptenal, which smells creamy, biscuit. The science ↓

Spanish Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Dissolve the gelatine in the milk.

  2. Boil for 20 minutes in a double boiler.

  3. Beat the yolks of the eggs with the sugar until light.

  4. Remove the boiling milk from heat and stir in the yolks and sugar quickly.

  5. Return to the double boiler and cook for a few minutes, ensuring it doesn't curdle.

Finish and set

  1. Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks in a large bowl.

  2. Slowly pour the mixture over the egg whites while stirring quickly.

  3. Mix well and pour into molds.

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 + coffeetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,202 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  2. Coffee + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,344 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).

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

Eggs
Yolks thicken the custard and whites, beaten to stiff peaks, give the cream its light, airy texture.
Cox's gelatine
Sets the milk mixture so the cream holds its shape when unmolded.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard and gives the cream its body.
Sugar
Sweetens the cream and helps the yolks beat to a light, smooth mixture.

The step that matters

Return to the double boiler and cook gently. Egg yolks can curdle if they get too hot. Cooking gently over simmering water thickens the custard smoothly and keeps it silky.

“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.

More spanish cream recipes

Pudding 3 See all 231 →

You might also like

Coffee Ice CreamCoffee Ice Cream91 recipesCoffee CustardCoffee Custard27 recipesCoffee CakeCoffee Cake21 recipesCoffee Bavarian CreamCoffee Bavarian Cream14 recipes