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Dessert

Spanish Cream

A custard dessert made with gelatin, milk, egg yolks, sugar, egg whites, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Spanish Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Soak the gelatin in 1 cup of milk for 2 hours.

  2. Scald 1 quart of milk in a double boiler.

  3. Pour the hot milk over the soaked gelatin.

  4. Beat the yolks of 8 eggs and add to the gelatin mixture.

  5. Sweeten with 1½ cups of sugar and return to the boiler.

  6. Cook until thick like custard.

Finish and set

  1. Beat the egg whites until stiff and fold into the custard.

  2. Mix well and flavor with 1 teaspoon of vanilla.

  3. Let cool in a mold.

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

Gelatine
Sets the custard so it holds its shape when cooled in a mold.
Egg yolks
Thicken the custard and add richness as they cook with the milk.
Egg whites
Beaten until stiff and folded in, they lighten the texture of the cream.
Milk
Forms the base of the custard, carrying the gelatine and eggs.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard.

The step that matters

Cook until thick like custard. Egg yolks thicken as they heat, but overheating can curdle them into grainy lumps. Cook gently over the double boiler, stirring, and stop once the custard coats a spoon.

“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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