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Dessert

Spanish Cream

A gelatin-based custard dessert made with milk, eggs, sugar, peach water, and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and cream 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 ↓

Spanish Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Boil the gelatine in the milk until dissolved.

  2. Stir in the beaten eggs and sugar over low heat until the mixture thickens.

  3. Remove from heat and add the peach water.

  4. Let it cool, then pour into moulds.

Make the cream layer

  1. Soak nearly a box of gelatine overnight in ½ cup wine.

  2. Melt the soaked gelatine with the sugar over low heat.

  3. When warm, mix in the cream or new milk and strain into moulds.

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

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

  2. Milk + peachtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together781 recipes

    Shared aroma: phellandrene (minty).

  3. Sugar + peachtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,308 recipes

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

  4. Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Thicken the custard as they set over low heat, giving it body.
Lady charlotte gelatine
Sets the mixture so it holds its shape when cooled in moulds.
Cream or new milk
Adds richness and a smooth, soft texture to the set cream.
Sugar
Sweetens the dish and helps the mixture stay soft and smooth.

The step that matters

Stir in the beaten eggs and sugar over low heat until the mixture thickens. Eggs thicken when heated gently but can scramble if the heat is too high. Low heat and steady stirring keep the custard smooth before the gelatine sets it.

Swap the peach

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Strawberryfits better
  3. Raspberryfits about as well
  4. Peachthe original

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

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