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Dessert

French Flummery

A chilled dessert made from isinglass, cream, sugar, rose water, orange flower water, and garnished with currant jelly.

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

French Flummery

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mixture

  1. Beat the isinglass until fine.

  2. Boil it gently in the cream for about 15 minutes, stirring constantly.

  3. Remove from heat and sweeten with powdered sugar.

  4. Add a little rose and orange flower water.

  5. Strain the mixture through a sieve.

Set and serve

  1. Stir until half cold and pour into a mold.

  2. Once completely cold, turn it out onto a dish and garnish with currant jelly.

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

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

  2. Rose + orangetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together876 recipes

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

  3. Rose + curranttop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together494 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  4. Orange + curranttop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,034 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  5. Sugar + orangetop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked 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
Gelatine-like protein that sets the cream into a firm, wobbly jelly as it cools.
Cream
Provides fat and richness, giving the set dessert a smooth, creamy texture.
Powdered loaf sugar
Adds sweetness and dissolves easily into the warm cream for an even flavour.

The step that matters

Stir until half cold before moulding. Isinglass sets as it cools, so pouring too early lets the mixture separate or stay runny, while stirring while half cold keeps it evenly blended and helps it set smooth in the mould.

Swap the currant

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Lemonfits better
  3. Raspberryfits better
  4. Currantthe 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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