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Dessert

American Cream

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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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 ↓

American Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the gelatin in the milk until dissolved.

  2. Heat the milk until it boils.

  3. Beat the yolks of the eggs with 5 tablespoons of sugar.

Make the custard

  1. Add the beaten yolks to the boiling milk.

  2. Let it boil for about 5 minutes.

  3. Stir in the stiffly beaten egg whites mixed with the remaining 5 tablespoons of sugar.

  4. Remove from heat.

Set and serve

  1. Pour into molds.

  2. Place in a cool place to set.

  3. Serve with cream.

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. Egg + sugartop 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

Milk
Forms the liquid base that the eggs thicken and the gelatin sets.
Eggs
Yolks thicken the milk into a custard, and whites add lightness through their foam.
Gelatin
Sets the liquid so the dessert holds its shape when unmolded.
Sugar
Sweetens the dessert and helps stabilise the beaten egg whites.

The step that matters

Adding the yolks to the boiling milk. Egg yolks thicken the milk as they heat, but they can scramble if the mixture boils too hard or too long. Controlling the heat during the 5-minute boil keeps the custard smooth, and folding the whites 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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