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Dessert

Italian Cream

A sweet custard made with isinglass, sugar, milk, cream, almond extract, and rose water.

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 ↓

Italian Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. In a saucepan, combine soaked isinglass, loaf sugar, and milk.

  2. Boil slowly while stirring until the isinglass dissolves.

  3. Strain the mixture and let it cool.

Finish and set

  1. Mix in thick cream, almond extract, and rose-water.

  2. Beat thoroughly until thickened.

  3. Pour into molds and refrigerate until ready to serve.

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. Almond + rosetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,465 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Cream + almondtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,130 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

  4. Milk + almondtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,800 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Isinglass
Gelatin-like setting agent that firms the mixture as it cools in the mold.
Thick cream
Adds fat and richness, giving the set dessert a smooth, creamy texture.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the isinglass dissolves into and the cream is folded into.
Loaf sugar
Sweetens the dessert and helps dissolve the isinglass in the hot milk.
Rose-water
Adds a floral aroma that flavours the cream.

The step that matters

Dissolve the isinglass fully. Isinglass must dissolve completely in the hot milk before cooling. Undissolved pieces will not set evenly, leaving a grainy or weak texture in the molded cream.

Swap the almond

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

  1. Almondthe original
  2. Pistachiofits about as well
  3. Chestnutfits less well
  4. Walnutfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, milk, cream, rose. 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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