Skip to main content
Dessert

Russe Cream

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

Russe Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the gelatine

  1. Soak the gelatine in water for 1 hour.

Make the custard

  1. In a bowl, mix sugar, milk, egg yolks, and soaked gelatine.

  2. Place the mixture in a pail.

  3. Set the pail in a kettle of water.

  4. Boil for 20 minutes.

  5. Beat the egg whites until stiff.

  6. Fold the beaten egg whites into the custard after removing from heat.

  7. Flavor with vanilla and pour into molds.

Serve

  1. Serve with sugar and cream or custard.

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. Sugar + eggtop 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 custard into a firm, sliceable structure when it cools.
Eggs
Egg yolks thicken the custard, and beaten whites add lightness and airy texture.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard and adds richness and softness.
Sugar
Sweetens the dessert and helps give the custard a smooth, tender body.

The step that matters

Folding the beaten egg whites into the custard. Egg whites hold air only while stiff, so fold gently after removing from heat. Overmixing deflates the foam, and adding them to a hot mixture can cause the whites to cook or weep.

“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.

You might also like

Vanilla Ice CreamVanilla Ice Cream108 recipesWhite CakeWhite Cake431 recipesPound CakePound Cake373 recipesOrange Bundt CakeOrange Bundt Cake349 recipes