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Orange Cream

A chilled custard dessert flavored with orange zest and juice, thickened with gelatin and egg yolks.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Orange Cream

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 ↓

Orange Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Whip 1 pint of heavy cream until it reduces to half its quantity.

  2. Soak ½ package of gelatin in ½ cup of cold water.

  3. Grate the rind of 2 oranges over the gelatin.

  4. Strain the juice from 6 oranges and mix it with 1 cup of sugar.

Make the custard

  1. In a double boiler, combine ½ pint of unwhipped cream and the well-beaten yolks of 6 eggs, stirring until it thickens.

  2. Add the soaked gelatin to the mixture and remove from heat.

  3. Let the mixture stand for 2 minutes.

  4. Add the orange juice and sugar mixture, beating until it reaches a soft custard consistency.

  5. Fold in the whipped cream.

  6. Mix well.

Set and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into molds to harden.

  2. Serve with sweetened 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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Orange + sugartop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together19,212 recipes

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

  3. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

  4. Cream + eggtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together42,166 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Cream + orangetop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,170 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

Orange and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 19,212 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

Heavy cream
Whipped to add airy volume and a light, creamy texture to the custard.
Gelatine
Sets the custard so it holds its shape when chilled in molds.
Egg yolks
Thicken the custard as they cook gently and add richness.
Orange juice
Gives the custard its citrus flavour and acidity.
Sugar
Sweetens the orange juice and balances its acidity.

The step that matters

Adding the gelatine to the warm custard. Gelatine must be fully dissolved and mixed in evenly before the custard cools. If the mixture is too hot, it can weaken the set; if it cools too much first, lumps and uneven firmness can form.

Swap the orange

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Strawberryfits better
  4. Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, sugar, egg. 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.

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