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 ↓
Almond Cream
Ingredients
Directions
Make the cream base
Combine milk, cream, and lemon peel in a saucepan. Heat gently for 20 minutes.
Blanch and finely pound sweet and bitter almonds in a mortar.
Remove saucepan from heat and stir in the pounded almonds, egg yolks, and enough clarified sugar to sweeten.
Pass the mixture through a tammy using a wooden spoon, then repeat the process.
Add clarified isinglass and mix well.
Set and serve
Prepare a mold in ice and pour in the cream mixture.
Once set, turn it out like a jelly.
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.
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Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Lemon + almondtop 10% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,655 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,053 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Cream + almondtop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,130 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).
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Milk + almondtop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,800 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Milk
- Forms the liquid body of the cream, carrying the flavors and setting with the other dairy.
- Cream
- Adds richness and fat, giving the set cream a smooth, tender texture.
- Egg yolks
- Add richness and help thicken the cream as it is gently heated.
- Isinglass
- Gelatin-like setting agent that makes the cream firm enough to hold its shape when turned out.
- Sweet almonds
- Provide the main almond flavor and body once finely pounded into the cream.
The step that matters
Adding the isinglass. Isinglass must be fully clarified and mixed in evenly; lumps or undissolved particles will leave a grainy or weak set, and the cream should be stirred well before it cools and begins to gel.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, cream, almond, egg, sugar):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Figfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, cream, almond, egg, 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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