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Dessert

Fruit Cream

A chilled dessert made with gelatin, fruit, sugar, and whipped cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Fruit Cream

Why it works: Fig and grape match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 323 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Fruit Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the gelatin

  1. Soften the gelatin in cold water.

  2. Dissolve the gelatin with hot milk.

Combine and set

  1. Add sugar, figs, prunes, and grapes; mix well.

  2. Fold in the whipped cream gently.

  3. Stir occasionally until it begins to set, then mold it.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Fig + grapetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together323 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  2. Gelatin + creamtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,628 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  3. Gelatin + sugartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,778 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Milk + figtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,026 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  5. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Granulated gelatin
Sets the cream into a firm, sliceable structure as it cools.
Heavy cream
Whipped and folded in, it adds a light, airy, creamy texture.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the tartness of the dried and fresh fruit.
Cooked figs
Contribute body, sweetness and chewy texture to the cream.
Cooked prunes
Add deep sweetness, softness and body to the cream.

The step that matters

Stir occasionally until it begins to set, then mold it.. Gelatin sets as it cools, so if the mixture firms too far before molding it cannot pour into the mold, and if it is still too liquid it will not hold shape. Folded whipped cream can also deflate if stirred hard, so the cream should be just thickened before molding.

Swap the grape

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Strawberryfits better
  3. Peachfits better
  4. Grapethe original

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