Why it works: Orange and pear work together. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 323 recipes. Both carry ethyl isobutyrate, which smells fruity, ethereal. The science ↓
French Flummery
Ingredients
Directions
Make the flummery
Boil isinglass shavings in cream for 15 minutes, stirring constantly.
Sweeten with loaf sugar, avoiding powdered sugar to prevent dust.
Add rose water and orange flower water.
Set and serve
Strain into a basin or mold.
Serve with baked pears around it.
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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Orange + peartop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together323 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).
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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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Rose + orangetop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together876 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Sugar + peartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,079 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
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Sugar + orangetop 20% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together19,212 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Sugar and orange 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
- Isinglass
- Fish-derived gelatin that dissolves in hot cream and sets it into a jelly as it cools.
- Cream
- Provides richness, body and a smooth, creamy mouthfeel to the set dessert.
- Loaf sugar
- Adds sweetness and balances the richness of the cream.
The step that matters
Boiling the isinglass in the cream while stirring constantly. Isinglass must fully dissolve in the hot cream to set evenly. Constant stirring keeps it from settling and sticking, and stops the cream from scorching on the base of the pan.
Swap the pear
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, sugar, rose, orange):
- Vanillafits better
- Lemonfits better
- Raspberryfits better
- Pearthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against cream, sugar, rose, orange. 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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