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Dessert

Tea Cream

A chilled cream dessert flavored with coriander, cinnamon, lemon peel, and green tea, topped with whole ratifias.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Tea Cream

Why it works: Coriander and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,498 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Tea Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Make the infusion

  1. In a saucepan, combine the cream, coriander seeds, cinnamon, lemon peel, and sugar. Boil for 10 minutes.

  2. Add the green tea to the mixture.

Thicken and set

  1. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until frothy.

  2. Strain the cream mixture into the egg whites.

  3. Whisk the mixture over low heat until it begins to thicken.

  4. Pour into cups or a deep dish and let cool.

  5. Garnish with whole ratifias 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.

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.

  1. Coriander + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,498 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Coriander + cinnamontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,635 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Cinnamon + lemontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

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

  5. Cinnamon + sugartop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Cinnamon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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
Provides richness and body, giving the finished cream its smooth, creamy texture.
Egg whites
Add foam and help set the mixture as it is gently heated and thickened.
Green tea
Contributes the tea flavour and a mild bitterness to the cream.

The step that matters

Whisking over low heat until it begins to thicken. Egg proteins set at temperatures that are too high, so heating gently while whisking keeps the mixture smooth. Too much heat can scramble the eggs and curdle the cream.

Swap the coriander

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, cinnamon, lemon, sugar, green tea, egg):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Gingerfits better
  4. Corianderthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, cinnamon, lemon, sugar, green tea, egg. 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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