Why it works: Rum and milk work together. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 967 recipes. Both carry ethyl 2-methylbutyrate, which smells fruity, apple. The science ↓
Rum Cream
Ingredients
Directions
Make the custard
Bring the milk to a boil, then add the bay leaf and let it infuse for 20 minutes.
Stir in the sugar and egg yolks until the mixture thickens.
Dissolve the gelatin in a little hot water, then add it to the mixture and remove the bay leaf.
Stir in the rum and let it cool, stirring occasionally.
Set
Pour the mixture into a mold rinsed with cold water.
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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Rum + milktop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together967 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
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Rum + sugartop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,908 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Egg + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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
- Egg yolks
- Thicken the mixture and add richness as they set with gentle heat.
- Gelatine
- Sets the cooled liquid into a firm, sliceable cream.
- Milk
- Forms the creamy base that the yolks thicken and the gelatine sets.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cream and balances the alcohol from the rum.
- Rum
- Adds the main flavour and aroma to the cream.
The step that matters
Stir the yolks in gently. Egg yolks scramble if the mixture gets too hot, leaving lumps instead of a smooth thickened custard. Keep the heat low and stir constantly until it coats a spoon.
“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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