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Dessert

Strawberry French Cream

A chilled dessert made with gelatin, lemon, sugar, egg whites, and fresh strawberries.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 53,532 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Strawberry French Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the gelatine

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

  2. Stir in the lemon juice, lemon rind, and sugar, and let it stand for 1 hour.

  3. Pour in the boiling water, stir until dissolved, strain, and set aside to cool.

Whip and set

  1. When it begins to harden, whip the egg whites until stiff.

  2. Beat the jelly into the whipped egg whites a little at a time until smooth.

  3. Stir in the strawberries, pour into a mold, and refrigerate for 2 hours.

  4. Serve with sweet cream.

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. Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

  2. Lemon + eggtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  3. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

Lemon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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 so the mixture holds its shape when chilled.
Egg whites
Whipped to foam, they add lightness and an airy, fluffy texture.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps balance the tartness of the lemon and strawberries.
Strawberries
Add fruit flavour, colour and a little texture to the set dessert.
Lemon
Its juice and rind add acidity and aroma that brighten the sweetness.

The step that matters

Beat the jelly into the whipped egg whites a little at a time. Gelatine that is too warm or added all at once can deflate the foam or cook it unevenly, while gelatine that is too cold sets in lumps. Adding it gradually while it is still syrupy keeps the mixture smooth and airy.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, egg):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits about as well
  3. Lemonthe original
  4. Datesfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg. 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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