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Dessert

Steeple Cream

A sweet almond and cream jelly set in high gallipots, served with cold cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and sugar 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 ↓

Steeple Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Make the jelly

  1. Combine hartshorn, isinglass, and fair water in a stone bottle.

  2. Add gum-arabic and gum-dragon, then seal the bottle tightly.

  3. Place the bottle in a pot of water with hay at the bottom and let it sit for 6 hours.

  4. Remove the bottle and let it stand for 1 hour before opening.

  5. Strain the mixture to obtain a strong jelly.

Make the almond cream

  1. Finely beat the blanched almonds and mix with thick cream.

  2. Let the mixture sit briefly.

  3. Strain the almond mixture.

Combine and set

  1. Combine it with the jelly.

  2. Heat the mixture until scalding hot.

  3. Sweeten with double refined sugar to taste.

  4. Remove from heat.

  5. Add a little amber.

  6. Pour into small high gallipots.

  7. Once cooled, turn the gallipots over.

  8. Serve with cold cream around them.

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. Cream + sugartop 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 + 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

Hartshorn
Dissolves into the liquid and forms a firm jelly as it cools.
Isinglass
Gelatin-like protein that helps the mixture set into a firm, sliceable jelly.
Blanched almonds
Provide the main flavour and body once finely beaten and strained into the cream.
Thick cream
Adds richness and a smooth, creamy texture to the set dessert.
Double refined sugar
Adds sweetness to balance the richness of the cream and almonds.

The step that matters

Heating the mixture until scalding hot. Heating must be controlled so the cream does not boil or curdle, and the jelly-forming ingredients stay evenly dissolved before the mixture is poured to set.

Swap the almond

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, sugar. 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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