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Dessert

Manioca Cream

A custard-like dessert made with manioc, eggs, milk, sugar, butter, and vanilla.

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 ↓

Manioca Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the custard

  1. Soak the manioca in water overnight.

  2. In a saucepan, bring the milk to a boil.

  3. Stir in the soaked manioca and boil for 10 minutes.

  4. Add the beaten egg yolks and sugar, stirring well while boiling.

  5. Pour the mixture into a pan and let it cool.

Finish and serve

  1. Once cool, fold in the beaten egg whites, reserving some for the top.

  2. Flavor with vanilla extract.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

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

  4. Butter + vanillatop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,050 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

Manioca
Thickens the milk as it cooks, giving the cream its body.
Eggs
Egg yolks thicken the cooked mixture, and whites lighten it when folded in.
White sugar
Sweetens the cream and balances the flavor of the milk.
New milk
Forms the base of the cream and carries the thickening starch.

The step that matters

Stirring the egg yolks into the boiling mixture. Egg yolks can scramble when they meet very hot liquid. Stirring constantly while adding them spreads the heat and keeps the custard smooth and thickened.

“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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