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Dessert

American Cream

A chilled dessert made from gelatin, milk, eggs, sugar, 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 ↓

American Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard base

  1. Dissolve the gelatin in the milk over low heat, stirring constantly.

  2. Just before it boils, stir in the egg yolks and sugar.

  3. Heat until it reaches the boiling point, then remove from heat.

Add the whites and set

  1. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites with the sugar until stiff peaks form.

  2. Gently fold the beaten egg whites and vanilla into the milk mixture.

  3. Pour the mixture into a mold and refrigerate until set.

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. Sugar + vanillatop 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).

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

Gelatine
Sets the liquid milk mixture into a soft, sliceable structure as it cools.
Egg yolks
Thicken the milk mixture and add richness and a smooth, custard-like texture.
Egg whites
Whipped to stiff peaks, they add airy lightness to the set dessert.
Sugar
Sweetens the dessert and helps stabilise the whipped egg whites.
Milk
Forms the main liquid base that the gelatine sets into a creamy dessert.

The step that matters

Stirring in the egg yolks before boiling. Egg yolks can scramble if the mixture gets too hot. Adding them just before boiling, while stirring, helps them thicken the milk smoothly instead of curdling.

“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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