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Dessert

Tea Cream

A chilled custard made with cream, coriander, cinnamon, lemon peel, green tea, and egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Tea Cream

Why it works: Coriander and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,498 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Tea Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Make the cream

  1. Boil the cream, coriander seeds, cinnamon, lemon peel, and sugar together for 10 minutes.

  2. Add the strong green tea to the mixture.

  3. Strain the cream into the beaten egg whites.

Thicken and serve

  1. Whisk the mixture over low heat until it begins to thicken.

  2. Pour into cups or a deep dish and let it cool.

  3. Garnish with whole coriander seeds before serving.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Coriander + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,498 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Coriander + cinnamontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,635 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Cinnamon + lemontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

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

  5. Cinnamon + sugartop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Cinnamon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

Cream
Provides richness and body, and sets into a smooth, creamy texture as it cools.
Egg whites
Coagulate with gentle heat to thicken the mixture and give it structure.
Green tea
Adds its distinct tea flavour and a slight bitterness to the cream.
Coriander seeds
Contribute a warm, citrusy aroma infused into the cream.

The step that matters

Whisking the egg whites over low heat. Egg whites thicken when gently heated, but high heat or too long a time can make them scramble into curds. Keeping the heat low and whisking constantly yields a smooth, thickened custard.

Swap the coriander

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, cinnamon, lemon, sugar, green tea, egg):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Gingerfits better
  4. Corianderthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, cinnamon, lemon, sugar, green tea, 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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