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Dessert

Spanish Cream

A custard dessert made with milk, gelatin, eggs, sugar, and vanilla, set in moulds and served chilled with cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 ↓

Spanish Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the milk and gelatin

  1. Dissolve the gelatin in the milk.

  2. Let the gelatin mixture stand for one hour.

  3. Heat the mixture on the stove until it comes to a boil.

Make the custard

  1. Beat the egg yolks with the sugar in a separate bowl.

  2. Pour the boiling milk and gelatin over the egg yolks and sugar.

  3. Return the mixture to the stove.

  4. Cook until it thickens to custard consistency.

  5. Remove from heat.

  6. Stir in the beaten egg whites until smooth.

  7. Flavor with vanilla.

Mould and serve

  1. Pour into moulds dipped in water.

  2. Chill.

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

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

  4. Vanilla + creamtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,301 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

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

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

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 milk mixture into a firm, sliceable dessert as it cools.
Milk
Forms the creamy base that the custard and gelatine set in.
Egg yolks
Thicken the custard and add richness and smooth texture.
White sugar
Sweetens the custard and balances the richness of the yolks.
Egg whites
Add lightness and airiness to the stirred custard mixture.

The step that matters

Cook until it thickens to custard consistency. Egg yolks thicken when heated gently, but overheating can curdle them into lumps. Cook slowly and stop once the custard coats a spoon, since gelatine needs the base to be smooth to set evenly.

“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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