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Dessert

Bavarian Vanilla Cream

A chilled custard dessert made with milk, egg yolks, sugar, gelatin, vanilla, whipped cream, and served with strawberry sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 ↓

Bavarian Vanilla Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Warm the milk in a saucepan, but do not boil it.

  2. In a bowl, mix the egg yolks and sugar until well combined.

  3. Add the egg mixture to the warm milk and stir well.

  4. Dissolve the gelatin in the warm milk, stirring until thick but do not boil.

  5. Add the vanilla extract.

  6. Strain the mixture.

Set the cream

  1. Fold in the whipped cream gently.

  2. Pour the mixture into a mold and refrigerate until set.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. Cook the strawberries with sugar, lemon juice, and enough hot water to create a thick syrup.

  2. Cool the sauce.

  3. Serve the sauce with the Bavarian cream, both very cold.

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. Gelatin + creamtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,628 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  3. Sugar + gelatintop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,778 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

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

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

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 and add richness and a smooth texture.
Gelatin
Sets the cream so it holds its shape when chilled.
Whipped cream
Adds lightness and airy texture to the set dessert.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the eggs and gelatin thicken.
Sugar
Adds sweetness to the custard and the strawberry syrup.

The step that matters

Dissolve the gelatin without boiling. Gelatin must melt fully into warm liquid to set evenly. Boiling can weaken its gelling power and can overcook the egg custard, so keep the heat gentle and stop once it thickens.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Strawberryfits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Coconutfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

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