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 ↓
Orange Cream
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the peel
Peel the oranges very thin and boil the peel until tender.
Pound the peel in a mortar to a fine paste, adding the sugar and orange-flower water.
Make the cream
Mix in the beaten egg yolks and the juice of the oranges.
Gradually add the boiling cream, beating until cold.
Serve in a glass dish.
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.
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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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Orange + sugartop 20% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together19,212 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + creamtop 24% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together42,166 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
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Orange + creamtop 28% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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
- Oranges
- Provide the juice and the peel, which supplies the main flavour and aroma.
- Egg yolks
- Thicken the cream as they set, giving it a rich, smooth body.
- Cream
- Adds richness and fat, giving the dish a smooth, creamy texture.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the dish and balances the acidity of the orange juice.
- Orange-flower water
- Adds a fragrant floral aroma that complements the orange peel.
The step that matters
Gradually add the boiling cream, beating until cold. Adding hot cream slowly while beating keeps the egg yolks from scrambling. Beating as it cools lets the yolks thicken the mixture smoothly into a even custard.
Swap the orange
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, cream, sugar):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Strawberryfits better
- Orangethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, 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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