Skip to main content
Dessert

Cream Filling

A sweet, vanilla-flavored cream filling made with milk, corn starch, sugar, egg yolk, butter, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

Cream Filling

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the thickener

  1. Measure the corn-starch evenly across the spoon and mix it with 2 tablespoons of the milk.

  2. In a bowl, beat the egg yolk and add 2 tablespoons of the milk, mixing well.

  3. Combine the corn-starch mixture with the egg yolk mixture.

Cook the filling

  1. In a small saucepan, heat the remaining milk over boiling water until it boils.

  2. Stir the corn-starch mixture into the boiling milk until smooth, cooking for 4 minutes while stirring continuously.

  3. Add the salt, sugar, and butter, stirring until well combined.

  4. Remove from heat, stir briefly to cool, then add the vanilla and use.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  5. Milk + corntop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,955 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

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

Milk
Forms the liquid base that the starch thickens into a custard.
Corn-starch
Thickens the milk as it heats, giving the filling its body.
Egg yolk
Adds richness and helps set the filling as it cooks.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and balances the flavour.
Butter
Adds fat for a smoother, richer texture.

The step that matters

Stirring the corn-starch mixture into the boiling milk. Starch must be stirred constantly as it enters hot liquid, or it clumps before it can thicken evenly. Egg yolk is also sensitive to heat, so the mixture should be stirred steadily while it cooks to keep the filling 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.

More cream filling recipes

Chocolate 21Whipped 17Ice 15Cake 11Sour 6Almond 5 See all 61 →

You might also like

Vanilla Ice CreamVanilla Ice Cream108 recipesCorn CakeCorn Cake90 recipesCorn Starch CakeCorn Starch Cake89 recipesCorn CakesCorn Cakes22 recipes