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Dessert

Bavarian Cream with Bitter Almonds

A chilled dessert made from bitter almond infusion, milk, sugar, isinglass, and whipped cream.

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 ↓

Bavarian Cream with Bitter Almonds

Ingredients

Directions

Make the almond base

  1. Pound the bitter almonds, adding water gradually.

  2. Combine the almonds with the milk and sugar in a bowl.

  3. Let the mixture infuse for 1 hour, then strain through a fine sieve.

Set and serve

  1. Dissolve the isinglass in a little warm water and add to the mixture.

  2. Place the bowl on ice until it begins to set.

  3. Fold in the whipped cream and serve.

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. Almond + creamtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,130 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

  3. Almond + milktop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,800 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

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

  5. Almond + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,679 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Isinglass
Gelatin-like setting agent that firms the cream as it chills.
Whipped cream
Adds air and richness, giving the set cream a light, creamy texture.
Bitter almonds
Provide the characteristic almond aroma and flavour infused into the milk.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that carries the flavour and sets with the isinglass.
Pounded sugar
Sweetens the base and balances the bitterness of the almonds.

The step that matters

Place the bowl on ice until it begins to set. Isinglass sets as it cools, so the mixture must be chilled only until it thickens slightly. Over-chilling can make it stiff and grainy, and folding in cream too late can leave it lumpy.

Swap the almond

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

  1. Almondthe original
  2. Chestnutfits about as well
  3. Pistachiofits about as well
  4. Hazelnutfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, 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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