Why it works: Egg and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 88,785 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Spanish Cream
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the custard
Beat the egg yolks and whites separately.
In a saucepan, boil the sweet milk with the gelatin, stirring until dissolved.
Stir in the beaten egg yolks and cook until thick.
Finish and set
When almost cool, fold in the beaten egg whites and add flavoring to taste.
Pour the mixture into a mold and refrigerate until set.
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.
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Egg + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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
- Eggs
- Yolks thicken the custard while whites, folded in beaten, lighten its texture.
- Gelatine
- Sets the liquid custard into a firm, sliceable form as it chills.
- Sweet milk
- Forms the liquid base that the eggs thicken and the gelatine sets.
- White sugar
- Adds sweetness to the custard.
The step that matters
Folding in the beaten egg whites. Fold the whites in only when the custard is almost cool. If it is still hot, the whites deflate and lose the air that makes the texture light.
“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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