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Gelatine and Corn Starch Cream

A custard made with gelatin, corn starch, milk, cream, egg, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Vanilla and milk 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 ↓

Gelatine and Corn Starch Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the gelatine and thickener

  1. Soak the gelatine in enough milk to cover it for about 15 minutes.

  2. Mix the corn starch smoothly with a little cold milk and combine with the remaining milk in a saucepan.

Make the cream

  1. Boil for 8 minutes.

  2. Add the whisked egg, sugar, and soaked gelatine, stirring until it thickens.

  3. Strain into a basin.

  4. Add the well-beaten cream and vanilla, stirring occasionally until cool.

  5. Pour into a mold rinsed in cold water and set aside until firm.

Serve

  1. Turn out and serve.

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. Vanilla + milktop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

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

  2. Vanilla + sugartop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

  3. Corn + vanillatop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,943 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  4. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  5. Corn + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,955 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

Vanilla and sugar 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 liquid cream into a firm, wobbly structure when chilled.
Corn starch
Thickens the milk as it heats, giving the cream body and a smooth texture.
Egg
Adds richness and helps thicken and enrich the custard base.
Milk
Forms the main liquid base, providing moisture and creamy flavour.
Cream
Adds fat for a richer, softer mouthfeel in the finished set cream.

The step that matters

Stirring the thickening mixture. Corn starch must be mixed smoothly into cold milk before heating, otherwise it clumps. Once boiled, the starch gelatinises and thickens the liquid, so the mixture needs steady stirring to keep it smooth.

“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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