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Dessert

Mock Cream Shape

A molded dessert made from milk, sugar, cornflour, eggs, and vanilla, set with buttered mold.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Mock Cream Shape

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. Mix the cornflour with a little cold milk until smooth.

  2. In a saucepan, boil the remaining milk with sugar.

  3. Pour the hot milk into the cornflour mixture, stirring well. Keep stirring.

  4. Let it simmer for 15 minutes.

  5. Add vanilla and food coloring.

Fold and set

  1. Beat the egg whites until stiff.

  2. Gently fold the beaten egg whites into the mixture when it has cooled slightly.

  3. Pour the mixture into a buttered mold.

  4. Once cool, turn out the cream shape.

Serve

  1. Serve with custard made from the egg yolks and milk, sweetened 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. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

  4. Vanilla + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,050 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Milk
Forms the body of the cream and provides moisture and softness.
Cornflour
Thickens the hot milk into a smooth, set mixture as it cooks.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps soften the set texture.
Eggs
Egg whites are beaten to add lightness, and yolks enrich the custard.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. If the mixture is too hot, the beaten whites will deflate and the cream will lose its airy lightness. Letting it cool slightly first keeps the foam intact.

“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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