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 ↓
Bohemian Jelly Cream
Ingredients
Directions
Make the strawberry jelly
Remove the stalks from the strawberries and bruise the fruit slightly.
Combine the strawberries, sugar, isinglass, and water in a saucepan and bring to a boil.
Let the mixture simmer for 10 minutes.
Strain the syrup through a jelly bag or fine cloth into a basin and set aside to cool.
Make the cream
When the syrup is just becoming a light jelly, whip the cream to stiff peaks.
Add the strawberry jelly to the whipped cream, spoonful by spoonful, while beating continuously. Avoid adding any sediment from the bottom of the basin.
Beat the mixture for about 10 minutes until it becomes very thick.
Incorporate the cochineal and mix well.
Set and chill
Pour the mixture into a well-wetted mold and place it in a cool area or on ice to set.
Prepare several hours in advance of serving.
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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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Strawberries
- Provide the main fruit flavour and the pale pink colour of the jelly and cream.
- Isinglass
- Gelatinises the strawberry syrup so it sets into a light jelly.
- Cream
- Whipped to stiff peaks, it gives the dessert its light, airy, rich texture.
- Loaf sugar
- Sweetens the fruit and helps the syrup thicken as it reduces.
- Cochineal
- Adds a deep red colour to the mixture.
The step that matters
Add the jelly to the cream slowly, spoonful by spoonful. Adding warm or liquid jelly too quickly deflates the whipped cream and can make it weep. Adding it gradually while beating keeps the foam stable and evenly blended. Leaving out sediment keeps the texture smooth.
“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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