Name: White Bavarian Cream
Ingredients: ½ box of Cox's gelatine; 5 tablespoons cold water; 1 pint fresh milk; ¼ pint sweet cream; 2 tablespoons granulated sugar; 4 egg whites, stiffly beaten; 2 tablespoons powdered sugar; 1 tablespoon brandy

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 ↓

White Bavarian Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the gelatine and custard base

Soak the gelatine in cold water for 1 hour or until dissolved.
Heat the milk and cream to boiling, then add granulated sugar and stir until dissolved.
Strain the gelatine into the milk mixture and stir well.
Set aside to cool and harden.

Add the egg whites and set

Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks, then whip in powdered sugar and brandy.
When the gelatine mixture is cold and starting to harden, stir until smooth, then gently fold in the egg mixture.
Pour into a glass dish and refrigerate for 2 hours to stiffen.
Serve 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.

Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Milk + brandytop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,738 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).
Cream + brandytop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,635 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).
Egg + brandytop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,340 recipes

Shared aroma: acetoin (butter, cream).
Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together29,399 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Gelatine: Sets the liquid cream into a firm, sliceable, wobbly structure as it cools.
Egg whites: Whipped to stiff peaks, they add airy lightness to the cream.
Fresh milk: Forms the liquid base that the gelatine sets and gives the cream its body.
Sweet cream: Adds fat for a rich, smooth mouthfeel.
Granulated sugar: Sweetens the base and dissolves fully into the warm milk mixture.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. If the gelatine mixture is still warm or liquid, the whipped egg whites deflate and the cream loses its airy texture. Waiting until it is cold and just starting to thicken lets the foam hold its structure while the gelatine sets around it.

“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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White Bavarian Cream