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Dessert

Italian Cream

A chilled dessert made from custard, cream, brandy, lemon juice, gelatin, and coffee essence, set in a mold.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Italian Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Line and decorate a mold.

  2. Whip the cream.

Mix and set

  1. Add all ingredients, adding the dissolved gelatine last.

  2. Mold the mixture and let it set.

Unmold and decorate

  1. Turn out when set and decorate with chopped jelly.

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. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  2. Cream + brandytop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,635 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

  3. Cream + coffeetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,339 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

  4. Sugar + coffeetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,344 recipes

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

  5. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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 mixture so it holds its shape when turned out.
Cream
Adds richness and a light, smooth texture.
Custard
Adds body and a soft, creamy texture to the mixture.
Brandy or curaçao
Adds a distinct liqueur flavour and aroma.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the sweetness and richness.
Coffee essence
Adds concentrated coffee flavour and aroma.

The step that matters

Adding the dissolved gelatine last. Gelatine must be fully dissolved and stirred in while still warm and fluid. If it is lumpy, or cools and begins to set before mixing, it forms strands or specks, and the mixture then sets unevenly.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, brandy, sugar, coffee):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Strawberryfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, brandy, sugar, coffee. 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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