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Dessert

Creme a LA Romaine

A chilled almond and cream dessert flavored with orange‑flower water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and orange are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,125 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Creme a LA Romaine

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the almonds

  1. Blanch, peel, and dry the almonds, then chop them finely.

  2. In a copper preserving pan, stir the almonds over heat until light brown.

Make the custard

  1. Boil the milk, add the sugar and almonds, and simmer gently for 10 minutes.

  2. Cool slightly, stir in the egg yolks, and let them bind.

  3. Remove from heat and strain through a fine sieve.

  4. Soak the gelatine in cold water, dissolve it in a saucepan, and strain into the cream.

  5. Add the orange-flower water.

  6. Whip the cream and gently fold it into the mixture when nearly cold.

Set and serve

  1. Pour into a mold and chill until set.

  2. Turn out, garnish with preserved fruit or compote, and 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. Almond + orangetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,125 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

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

  3. Milk + orangetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,696 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  4. Almond + creamtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,130 recipes

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

  5. Almond + milktop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,800 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Almonds
Provide the nutty flavour and body of the cream base.
Egg yolks
Thicken the custard and add richness through binding.
Gelatine
Sets the cream so it holds its shape when turned out.
Cream
Adds richness and a light, airy texture when whipped and folded in.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the almonds and sugar infuse.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and balances the bitter almond flavour.

The step that matters

Folding in the whipped cream. If the mixture is still warm, the whipped cream will deflate and lose its airiness. Folding it in only when nearly cold, while the gelatine is just beginning to set, keeps the texture light and even.

Swap the orange

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against almond, milk, cream, sugar, 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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