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Dessert

Roman Cream

A chilled gelatin dessert made with cream, wine, 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 ↓

Roman Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the gelatine

  1. Soak the gelatine in the milk for 30 minutes.

  2. Place the dish with the soaked gelatine in a basin of hot water on the stove until fully dissolved.

Make the cream

  1. Whip the cream until light, then add the sugar and vanilla.

  2. Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks and fold them into the cream mixture.

  3. Slowly stir the dissolved gelatine into the cream mixture and beat well.

  4. Pour the mixture into a mold and refrigerate until hardened.

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. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  4. Cream + vanillatop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,301 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  5. Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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 liquid cream into a firm, sliceable structure as it cools.
Cream
Provides richness and a light, airy body when whipped.
Egg whites
Whipped to stiff peaks, they add lightness and airy volume to the cream.
Sugar
Sweetens the cream and adds mild body to the whipped mixture.

The step that matters

Slowly stir the dissolved gelatine into the cream mixture. Gelatine that is added too quickly or is too hot can deflate the whipped cream and egg whites or set in strands. Adding it slowly while beating keeps the mixture smooth and evenly airy before it chills.

“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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