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Dessert

Italian Cream

A chilled citrus and brandy custard made with isinglass, heavy cream, and powdered sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and orange match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Italian Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. Dissolve the isinglass in water as directed for Lemon Cream.

  2. Grate the peel of the lemon and orange into a bowl.

  3. Add the juice of one lemon and half the juice of another lemon to the bowl.

Make the cream

  1. Stir in the brandy and cream, then whisk until frothy.

  2. Add powdered sugar to sweeten to your taste.

  3. Mix in the dissolved isinglass thoroughly.

  4. Pour into a mold and refrigerate until set, about one hour.

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. Lemon + orangetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  3. Orange + brandytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,706 recipes

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

  4. Brandy + creamtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,635 recipes

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

  5. Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

Lemon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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

Isinglass
Gelatin-like setting agent that firms the cream so it holds its shape when chilled.
Heavy cream
Provides fat and body, giving the set dessert a rich, smooth texture.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavor and balances the sweetness of the sugar.
Brandy
Adds aroma and flavor depth to the cream.

The step that matters

Mix in the dissolved isinglass thoroughly. Isinglass must be fully dispersed into the cream before chilling; uneven mixing leaves pockets that fail to set, so the dessert may be soft in places.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Apricotfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against orange, brandy, 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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