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Dessert

Orange Cream

A chilled dessert made from orange juice, lemon, sugar, isinglass, and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Orange Cream

Why it works: Orange and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Orange Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mixture

  1. Squeeze the juice from the oranges and lemon, then strain it.

  2. In a saucepan, combine the juice with the isinglass and enough water to make a total of 1½ pints.

  3. Rub sugar on the orange and lemon rind.

  4. Add the rind to the saucepan and boil for about 10 minutes.

  5. Strain the mixture through a muslin bag into a mold.

Set the cream

  1. Once cool, beat in the cream until well combined.

  2. Wet a mold or soak it in cold water.

  3. Pour in the cream mixture.

  4. Place it in a cool place to set.

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. Orange + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

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

  3. Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Orange + sugartop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together19,212 recipes

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

  5. Orange + creamtop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,170 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

Lemon and sugar 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

Isinglass
Sets the liquid into a firm, sliceable jelly as it cools.
Oranges
Supply the juice and rind that give the dish its citrus flavour and acidity.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, soft texture to the set mixture.
Sugar
Adds sweetness to balance the sharp citrus juice.

The step that matters

Beat in the cream only once the mixture is cool. Cream added to a hot liquid can curdle or separate, leaving a grainy texture. Cooling first lets the mixture thicken slightly and blend the cream smoothly before it sets.

Swap the orange

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

  1. Vanillafits about as well
  2. Orangethe original
  3. Raspberryfits about as well
  4. Limefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against lemon, sugar, cream. 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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