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Dessert

Italian Cream

A chilled gelatin dessert made with milk, egg yolks, vanilla, and sweetened with sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Italian Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the gelatine in 1½ cups of milk for 1 hour.

Make the base

  1. Heat the mixture over the fire, stirring until it boils.

  2. Sweeten the mixture.

  3. Add the beaten yolks of 4 eggs.

  4. Flavor with vanilla.

Freeze

  1. Once cold, place it in a freezer for 6 hours.

  2. Add more ice and salt occasionally without stirring.

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. Vanilla + sugartop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

  3. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

  4. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

  5. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

Vanilla and sugar 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 into a firm, sliceable dessert as it cools.
Milk
Forms the liquid base, adding body and a creamy texture.
Egg yolks
Enrich the mixture and thicken it slightly when gently heated.
Sugar
Adds sweetness to balance the richness of the dairy.
Vanilla extract
Adds a warm, aromatic flavor to the base.

The step that matters

Add the beaten yolks. Egg yolks can scramble if they meet very hot liquid directly. Whisking in a little hot mixture first, then adding them slowly while stirring, keeps them smooth and helps them thicken evenly.

“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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