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
Dissolve the isinglass
Simmer the isinglass in a little milk with the lemon rind until dissolved.
Remove the lemon rind from the milk mixture and stir it into the cream mixture while warm.
Combine and set
Whip the cream with the lemon juice, sherry, and powdered sugar.
Pour the mixture into a mold, stirring to prevent settling.
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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Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Milk + sherrytop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,479 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).
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Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,053 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Lemon + sherrytop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,273 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
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Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together29,399 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Isinglass
- Gelatin-like protein that dissolves in warm milk and sets the dessert as it cools.
- Heavy cream
- Whipped fat gives the dessert its light, rich, creamy body.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and cuts the richness of the cream.
- Sherry
- Adds aromatic depth and a fortified wine flavour to the cream.
- Powdered sugar
- Sweetens the cream and dissolves easily into it without graininess.
- Milk
- Carries the isinglass so it dissolves evenly before being folded into the cream.
The step that matters
Pour the mixture into a mold, stirring to prevent settling.. The setting agent begins to firm as the mixture cools, and heavier solids or whipped cream can separate and sink. Stirring keeps the mixture evenly suspended until it begins to set, so the finished dessert has a uniform texture.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, cream, sherry, sugar):
- Vanillafits better
- Strawberryfits better
- Figfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, cream, sherry, sugar. 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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