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Dessert

Bavarois

A chilled custard dessert made with vanilla, cocoa, egg yolks, gelatin, and whipped cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Vanilla and milk 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 ↓

Bavarois

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Add a few drops of vanilla essence to the milk and let it cool.

  2. Stir cocoa powder and sugar into the boiling milk until mixed, then strain through muslin.

  3. Let the milk cool completely, then mix in the egg yolks to create a custard.

  4. Stir in the dissolved gelatine and place the custard on ice.

  5. Once it begins to set, fold in the whipped cream.

Layer and chill

  1. Pour a layer of the vanilla jelly into a mould on ice, then add a layer of cream.

  2. Continue layering jelly and cream until the mould is full.

  3. Chill for an hour before serving.

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. Vanilla + milktop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Cocoa powder + coffeetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together541 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  3. Vanilla + sugartop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

  4. Vanilla + coffeetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,391 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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

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

Vanilla and sugar 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

Egg yolks
Thicken the custard as they set, giving the Bavarois its creamy body.
Gelatine
Sets the custard so it holds its shape when turned out and sliced.
Whipped cream
Adds lightness and a soft, airy texture to the set custard.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the egg yolks and gelatine set into.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and balances the bitterness of the cocoa.
Cocoa powder
Gives the custard its chocolate flavour and dark colour.

The step that matters

Fold in the whipped cream once the custard begins to set. If the custard is still liquid, the cream sinks and the layers blur; if it has set too firmly, the cream lumps and won't blend evenly. Gelatine firms as it cools, so the timing sets the texture.

“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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