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Dessert

Brandy Cream

A sweet, creamy dessert made with almonds, milk, egg yolks, cream, brandy, and thin cream, sweetened to taste.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Brandy Cream

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 ↓

Brandy Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Make the almond base

  1. Boil the blanched and bitter almonds in the milk.

  2. Let the mixture cool.

  3. Beat the egg yolks with the cream and add to the cooled mixture.

  4. Sweeten to taste and stir in the brandy.

Thicken and serve

  1. Pour in the thin cream and heat gently without boiling.

  2. Stir continuously until it thickens.

  3. Pour into cups or low glasses and let cool before serving.

  4. Add a ratafia drop to each cup if desired.

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

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

  2. Milk + brandytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,738 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  3. Cream + brandytop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,635 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Almond + milktop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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

Egg yolks
Thicken the cream as they set with gentle heat, giving it a smooth, rich body.
Brandy
Adds its own warm, aromatic flavour to the cream.
Almonds
Infuse the milk with their nutty, almond aroma and flavour.
Thin cream
Forms the bulk of the dish, contributing richness and a soft, creamy texture.

The step that matters

Heat gently without boiling. Egg yolks thicken through gentle heat, but if the mixture boils they can scramble and curdle, leaving a grainy texture instead of a smooth custard-like cream.

“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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