Skip to main content
Dessert

Buttercup Jelly

A gelatin dessert made with milk, egg yolks, sugar, vanilla, and egg whites, set in molds and served with whipped cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 ↓

Buttercup Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soften the gelatine in cold water.

  2. Heat the milk in a double boiler.

Make the custard

  1. In a bowl, mix the egg yolks with sugar, then stir into the heated milk and cook until it thickens to a custard.

  2. Remove from heat, add vanilla and softened gelatine, stirring until dissolved.

  3. Fold in the beaten egg whites gently.

Set and serve

  1. Pour into molds and chill in the refrigerator until set.

  2. Serve with whipped cream.

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. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  4. Vanilla + creamtop 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

Gelatine
Sets the liquid custard into a firm, sliceable jelly as it chills.
Egg yolks
Thicken the milk into a custard and add richness and colour.
Egg whites
Are folded in to lighten the mixture and add airy texture.
Milk
Forms the base of the custard and contributes creaminess.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and balances the egg flavour.

The step that matters

Cooking the custard. Egg yolks thicken as they heat, but overheating can curdle them into grainy bits. Cook gently over the double boiler, stirring, until the custard coats a spoon, so it stays smooth before the gelatine and egg whites are added.

“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.

You might also like

Vanilla Ice CreamVanilla Ice Cream108 recipesWhite CakeWhite Cake431 recipesPound CakePound Cake373 recipesOrange Bundt CakeOrange Bundt Cake349 recipes