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Dessert

Vanilla Bavarian Cream

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

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 ↓

Vanilla Bavarian Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Whip the cream until light and set it aside to drain in a sieve in a cold place.

  2. Soak the gelatine in the cold water for 2 hours in a cool place, or 30 minutes in a warm place.

  3. Reserve ½ cup of milk and heat the remaining milk in a double boiler until boiling.

  4. Beat the egg yolks and mix with the reserved milk.

Make the custard

  1. Stir the egg mixture into the boiling milk and cook for 2 minutes.

  2. Remove from heat and strain in the soaked gelatine, then stir in the sugar.

  3. Once cooled, mix in the vanilla until smooth.

Assemble and set

  1. Gently fold in the whipped cream until well combined.

  2. Pour the mixture into a mold and refrigerate for at least 4 hours until set.

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. Cream + sugartop 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. Cream + milktop 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

Cream
Whipped and folded in, it adds lightness and a soft, airy texture.
Egg yolks
Thicken the warm milk into a custard and add richness.
Gelatine
Sets the mixture so it holds its shape when chilled.
Milk
Forms the base of the custard and carries the flavor.
Sugar
Sweetens the cream and balances the richness.

The step that matters

Stir the egg mixture into the boiling milk and cook for 2 minutes. Egg yolks thicken as they heat, but if they get too hot they can scramble or curdle. Keep the heat controlled and stir constantly so the custard thickens smoothly.

“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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