Why it works: Milk and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 77,875 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Bavarian Cream
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the strawberries
Pick and crush the strawberries with a silver spoon.
Sprinkle sifted sugar over the strawberries.
Let them stand for a few hours.
Rub the strawberries through a fine sieve into a saucepan.
Make the cream
Add the new milk to the saucepan.
Melt the isinglass in the saucepan over low heat.
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 + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 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
- Isinglass
- A gelatin-like fish protein that sets the cream as it cools.
- New milk
- Forms the liquid base, giving the cream its body and richness.
- Strawberries
- Supply the main flavour, colour and juice to the cream.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the strawberries and helps draw out their juice.
The step that matters
Melting the isinglass. Isinglass dissolves slowly, and high heat can scorch it on the base of the pan. Gentle heat lets it dissolve evenly, so the cream sets smoothly without lumps.
“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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