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Dessert

French Cream Filling

A custard-like filling made from milk, cornflour, eggs, sugar, butter, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

French Cream Filling

Ingredients

Directions

Make the filling

  1. Beat the eggs in a bowl.

  2. Mix the cornflour with a little of the milk until smooth.

  3. In a saucepan, combine the remaining milk, cornflour mixture, sugar, and butter.

  4. Stir over medium heat until the mixture thickens.

  5. Add vanilla flavoring to taste.

Assemble

  1. Spread the filling between layers of cake while both the cake and filling are hot.

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. Butter + vanillatop 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 liquid base that thickens into a smooth, creamy filling.
Cornflour
Starch that thickens the liquid as it heats, giving the filling body.
Sugar
Adds sweetness to balance the richness of the filling.
Butter
Adds fat for richer flavour and a silkier, softer texture.

The step that matters

Stir over medium heat until the mixture thickens. Cornflour only thickens once its starch granules swell in hot liquid. Stirring keeps the mixture moving so lumps do not form and the bottom does not scorch before the filling is evenly thick.

“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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