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Dessert

Russian Cream

A chilled custard dessert made with gelatin, milk, eggs, sugar, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

Russian Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Dissolve the gelatine in hot water.

  2. Beat the egg yolks with the sugar.

  3. Stir in the milk to make a custard.

  4. Mix in the dissolved gelatine and vanilla before removing from heat.

  5. Beat the egg whites to a stiff froth.

  6. Strain the custard into the egg whites.

  7. Stir everything together.

Set and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into small moulds.

  2. Set aside to cool.

  3. 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.

  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 cream so it holds its shape when cooled.
Eggs
Egg yolks thicken the custard and whites add lightness through their foam.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard, adding richness and moisture.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and stabilises the beaten egg whites.
Vanilla
Adds aroma that rounds out the custard's flavour.

The step that matters

Mix in the dissolved gelatine and vanilla before removing from heat. Gelatine must be fully dissolved and evenly mixed into the warm custard; if it cools too much before folding, it can set in lumps. Egg yolks in custard also thicken only gently and can curdle if overheated, so timing off the heat matters.

“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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