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Dessert

Orange Cream

A custard-like dessert made from Seville orange juice, sugar, eggs, and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Orange Cream

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 ↓

Orange Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the juice

  1. Remove the rind from the Seville oranges and squeeze out the juice.

Make the custard

  1. In a saucepan, combine the orange juice, water, sugar, and beaten egg whites.

  2. Heat the mixture over medium heat, stirring continuously until it thickens and turns white.

  3. Strain the mixture through a fine cloth.

  4. Stir until cool.

  5. Beat the egg yolks and add them to the mixture along with the cream.

  6. Stir over low heat until just before boiling.

  7. Pour the mixture into a bowl.

  8. Stir until completely cool.

Serve

  1. Transfer to serving glasses.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Orange + sugartop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together19,212 recipes

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

  3. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

  4. Egg + creamtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together42,166 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Orange + creamtop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,170 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

Orange and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 19,212 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 whites
Thicken the mixture and give it a white, set structure as they heat.
Egg yolks
Enrich the custard and add richness and a smooth, thick texture.
Cream
Adds fat for a silky, rich mouthfeel.
Sugar
Adds sweetness to balance the tart orange juice.
Seville oranges
Provide the tart orange juice and flavour that defines the custard.

The step that matters

Stirring over low heat until just before boiling. Egg yolks can curdle or scramble if overheated, so gentle, constant stirring keeps the custard smooth and thickened. Heating past boiling risks a grainy texture.

Swap the orange

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Strawberryfits better
  4. Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, 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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