Skip to main content
Dessert

Italian Cream

A chilled dessert made from isinglass, heavy cream, lemon juice, sugar, brandy, and white wine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Brandy and white wine work together. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 620 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Italian Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Boil the isinglass until dissolved.

  2. Whip the heavy cream until it thickens.

Make the cream

  1. Add the lemon juice, sifted sugar, brandy, and white wine gradually.

  2. Once thickened, mix in the cooled isinglass.

  3. Whip until it begins to set.

  4. Pour the mixture into a mold.

  5. Optionally, color half of the mixture before setting.

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. Brandy + white winetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together620 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Lemon + white winetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,832 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

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

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

  5. Cream + white winetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,760 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

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 in the mold.
Heavy cream
Provides fat and body; whipping traps air to give a light, thick texture.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and balances the sweetness.
Sifted sugar
Sweetens the cream and dissolves smoothly when sifted.

The step that matters

Mix in the cooled isinglass. If the isinglass is still hot when added, it can thin the whipped cream and cause it to deflate. Cooling it first keeps the foam stable while the gelatin-like agent sets it.

Swap the lemon

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, sugar, brandy, white wine. 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.

More italian cream recipes

Custard 4Fudge 3Ice 3 See all 168 →

You might also like

Lemon CakeLemon Cake228 recipesLemon IceLemon Ice147 recipesLemon SherbetLemon Sherbet103 recipesBrandy PeachesBrandy Peaches68 recipes