Why it works: Cream and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and 43,450 recipes mention both. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
Bavarian Cream, with Almonds
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the almonds
Blanch and skin the sweet and bitter almonds.
Place the almonds in a pan over moderate heat, stirring continually until they turn a fine yellow color.
Remove from heat and let cool, then pound into fine pieces.
Make the cream
Add the nearly boiling cream or milk and sugar to the almond mixture.
Stir in the soaked gelatin until well combined.
Place the mixture on ice and stir until it begins to thicken and is very smooth.
Gently fold in the whipped cream.
Set
Pour the mixture into a mold and refrigerate until set.
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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Almond + creamtop 16% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together5,130 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).
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Almond + sugartop 18% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together15,679 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Sweet almonds
- Provide the main nutty almond flavor and body of the cream.
- Bitter almonds
- Add a deeper, sharper almond aroma that balances the sweetness.
- Cream or rich milk
- Supplies fat and moisture that give the set cream a smooth, rich texture.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and balances the flavor of the almonds.
- Gelatine
- Sets the liquid mixture so it holds its shape when chilled.
- Whipped cream
- Adds air and extra fat, lightening the texture of the set dessert.
The step that matters
Place the mixture on ice and stir until it begins to thicken. Gelatine sets as it cools, so the mixture must thicken slightly before folding in the whipped cream. If it is poured too early it can set unevenly, while cooling too far can make it lumpy and hard to fold in 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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