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Dessert

Noyeau Cream

A gelatin-based cream dessert flavored with lemon, noyeau, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and cream 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 ↓

Noyeau Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Make the cream

  1. Dissolve the isinglass or gelatine in a little boiling water.

  2. Add the lemon juice and strain this into the cream.

  3. Add sufficient noyeau and sugar to flavor and sweeten the mixture.

Mould and set

  1. Whip the cream well and pour it into an oiled mould.

  2. Set the mould in ice or a cool place.

Serve

  1. Turn it out and garnish the dish to taste.

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

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

  2. Lemon + milktop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,053 recipes

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

  3. Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

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

  5. Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

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 or gelatine
Sets the cream so it holds its shape when turned out of the mould.
Cream
Provides richness and body, and whipping adds a light, airy texture.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavor and balances the sweetness.
Sugar
Sweetens the mixture and balances the flavor of the noyeau.
Noyeau
Gives the cream its characteristic almond-like aroma and flavor.

The step that matters

Set the mould in ice or a cool place. Gelatine or isinglass only firms when chilled. The mould must stay cold long enough for the cream to set firmly enough to unmould without slumping.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Strawberryfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, milk, 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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