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Dessert

Spanish Cream

A custard made with milk, sweet cream, egg yolks, sugar, lemon peel, and isinglass.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and cream 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 ↓

Spanish Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard base

  1. Dissolve isinglass in milk over low heat, stirring constantly.

  2. Add sugar and lemon peel, simmer until isinglass is dissolved.

  3. Stir in sweet cream.

  4. Beat egg yolks well, then strain cream into yolks, stirring continuously until almost cold.

Set and serve

  1. Pour gently into a mold, avoiding sediment.

  2. Refrigerate overnight, then turn out to serve.

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. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  2. Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,053 recipes

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

  3. Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

  5. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

Sugar and lemon 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 turned out.
Egg yolks
Enrich the cream and add richness and body as they thicken it gently.
Sweet cream
Adds fat and richness, giving the set cream a smooth, creamy texture.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the isinglass dissolves into and sets.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the richness of the cream and yolks.

The step that matters

Straining into the yolks while stirring until almost cold. Adding hot cream to yolks too quickly can scramble them. Stirring constantly while adding the cream tempers the yolks gently, and stirring until nearly cold keeps the custard smooth and prevents lumps or a grainy texture.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Strawberryfits better
  3. Raspberryfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, sugar, cream, egg. 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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