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Dessert

Bavarian Cream

A chilled dessert made with whipped cream, egg whites, sugar, fruit, almonds, and gelatin.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Bavarian Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cream

  1. In a bowl, mix whipped cream, beaten egg whites, and sugar to taste.

  2. Add chopped pineapple and blanched almonds to the mixture.

Make the gelatine

  1. Combine cold water and gelatin in a separate bowl.

  2. Let the mixture stand for a few minutes.

  3. Stir in boiling water until gelatin dissolves.

  4. Let the mixture cool.

Combine and set

  1. Gently fold the gelatin mixture into the cream mixture.

  2. Refrigerate until set and ready to 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. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  2. Pineapple + almondtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together428 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  3. Cream + almondtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,130 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

  4. Sugar + almondtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,679 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  5. Sugar + pineappletop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,841 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Thick cream
Whipped to trap air, giving the Bavarian cream its light, airy texture.
Egg whites
Beaten to foam, adding lightness and volume to the cream mixture.
Knox's gelatine
Sets the mixture as it cools, giving it a firm yet tender body when chilled.

The step that matters

Gently fold the gelatin mixture into the cream mixture. Gelatin must be cool but still liquid when added. If it is too hot it can deflate the whipped cream and egg whites, and if it has begun to set it forms lumps. Folding gently preserves the trapped air that gives the dessert its light texture.

Swap the pineapple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, egg, sugar, almond):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Pineapplethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, egg, sugar, almond. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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 bavarian cream recipes

Strawberry 33Chocolate 24Pineapple 24Coffee 14Orange 14Fruit 8 See all 171 →

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