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 ↓
To Make a Floating Island
Ingredients
Directions
Make the cream froth
Grate the yellow rind of a lemon into a quart of cream.
Add a large glass of Madeira wine and sweeten with loaf sugar.
Mill the mixture with a chocolate mill until it forms a strong froth.
Let it drain overnight on a sieve.
Layer and set
Layer the froth in a deep glass dish.
Roll in a sprig of myrtle to imitate snow.
Cover with thinly diced currant jelly.
Pour over fine strong calf's foot jelly until it looks like glass and is full to the brim.
Let it stand until cold and stiff.
Decorate
Top with rock candied sweet meats.
Place green sprigs of myrtle on top.
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.
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Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Lemon + myrtletop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together39 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Cream + madeira winetop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together146 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Currant + myrtletop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together16 recipes
Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
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
- Cream
- Whipped into a froth that forms the light, airy body of the dessert.
- Calf's foot jelly
- Gelatin-rich liquid that sets firm and clear, holding the layers together.
- Madeira wine
- Adds aromatic depth and flavour to the cream mixture.
- Currant jelly
- Adds fruity sweetness and a contrasting layer of flavour and colour.
- Loaf sugar
- Sweetens the cream so the froth tastes pleasantly sweet.
The step that matters
Milling the cream to a strong froth. Cream must be agitated enough to trap air and hold its shape. Under-beaten cream stays runny and collapses, while over-beating turns it grainy, so the froth needs careful control before draining.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, madeira wine, sugar, lemon, meat, myrtle):
- Orangefits better
- Raspberryfits better
- Strawberryfits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against cream, madeira wine, sugar, lemon, meat, myrtle. 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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