Why it works: Milk and egg 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 ↓
Russian Cream
Ingredients
Directions
Make the custard
Dissolve the gelatine in the milk.
Add the boiling water and sugar, then heat in a pot of boiling water.
When very hot, stir in the beaten egg yolks.
Cook until thickened, then remove from heat and stir in the beaten egg whites.
Set and serve
Add flavoring to taste and pour into a mold to cool.
Refrigerate overnight before serving.
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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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Milk and sugar 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
- Gelatine
- Sets the liquid into a firm, sliceable dessert as it cools.
- Egg yolks
- Thicken the mixture and add richness as they cook.
- Egg whites
- Add light, airy texture when folded in beaten form.
- Milk
- Provides the creamy base and body of the dessert.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the dessert and balances the richness of the eggs and milk.
The step that matters
Cook until thickened, then add the egg whites off the heat. Egg yolks thicken as their proteins set with gentle heat, so overheating can curdle the custard. Egg whites stirred in while the mixture is still hot can deflate, so folding them in gently keeps the dessert 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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