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Dessert

Vanilla Bavarian Cream

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 (or cream and milk) and set the whipped cream aside.

Make the custard

  1. Scald ¾ cup of the drained cream with ½ cup of sugar.

  2. Beat the yolks of the eggs with the remaining sugar and a pinch of salt.

  3. Cook the yolk mixture in the hot cream until it coats the back of a spoon.

  4. Remove from heat and add the soaked gelatin.

  5. Strain the mixture.

Chill and finish

  1. Set the mixture in a bowl of ice water and stir until it begins to thicken.

  2. Fold in the whipped cream and vanilla extract.

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. 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

Egg yolks
Thicken the custard base as they cook gently in the hot cream.
Single cream
Forms the rich, smooth custard base that the yolks thicken.
Double cream
Whipped and folded in to lighten the set cream with airy richness.
Gelatine
Sets the cream so it holds its shape when chilled.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and balances the richness of the cream.

The step that matters

Cooking the yolk mixture in the hot cream. Egg yolks thicken from gentle heat, but if the mixture gets too hot it can curdle or scramble. Cook slowly, stirring, until it coats the back of a spoon.

“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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