Why it works: Milk and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 88,785 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Russian Cream
Ingredients
Directions
Make the custard
Dissolve the gelatine in 1 cup of milk.
In a saucepan, combine the dissolved gelatine, 1½ cups of milk, and ¾ cup of sugar.
Add the yolks of 4 eggs and cook over medium heat until thickened.
Set and serve
Remove from heat and fold in the beaten egg whites.
Pour the mixture into a mold and let it cool.
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.
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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- Gelatine
- Sets the mixture as it cools, giving it a firm, sliceable body.
- Egg yolks
- Thicken the milk mixture while cooking and add richness.
- Egg whites
- Beaten and folded in, they add lightness and airy volume.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base that the gelatine and eggs set into.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cream and balances the richness of the eggs.
The step that matters
Cooking the yolks until thickened. Egg yolks thicken as their proteins coagulate with gentle heat. If the heat is too high or the cooking runs too long, the yolks can scramble and turn grainy, so the mixture should be cooked over medium heat and watched closely.
“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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