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Dessert

Brown Bread Cream

A custard dessert made with milk, cream, gelatin, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, brandy, and brown bread crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Vanilla and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,287 recipes. Both carry 4-methoxybenzaldehyde, which smells sweet, anise. The science ↓

Brown Bread Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Heat the milk with the sugar and vanilla until it boils.

  2. Pour the hot milk over the beaten egg while stirring continuously.

  3. Return the mixture to the saucepan and add the gelatin, which has been soaked and melted in minimal water.

  4. Add the cream and stir with a wooden spoon.

  5. Heat until very hot, but do not let it boil.

Flavour and set

  1. In a bowl, mix the cinnamon with the bread crumbs.

  2. Pour the cream mixture over the cinnamon and bread crumbs and add the brandy.

  3. Stir for a few minutes.

  4. Pour into a mold that has been soaked in cold water.

  5. If you need it quickly, place it on ice; otherwise, let it stand until the next day.

Serve

  1. Turn out and garnish with colored 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. Vanilla + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).

  2. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

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

  3. Cream + gelatintop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,628 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  4. Gelatin + sugartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,778 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

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

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

Milk
Forms the liquid base that the custard sets from.
Egg
Thickens the custard as it gently heats, giving it body.
Gelatin
Sets the cream so it holds its shape when turned out of the mold.
Cream
Adds richness and fat, giving a smoother, softer texture.
Brown bread crumbs
Adds bready texture and body to the set cream.

The step that matters

Heat the custard without boiling. Boiling can curdle the egg and weaken the gelatin set. Heating only until very hot thickens the egg gently and keeps the mixture smooth and able to set firm.

“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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