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 ↓
Floating Island
Ingredients
Directions
Whip the cream
In a large bowl, sweeten the cream with fine sugar.
Add the sack and lemon zest, then whip the cream until thick and frothy.
Carefully pour the liquid from the froth into a dish.
Assemble and serve
Slice the French rolls as thinly as possible and layer them on the cream.
Spread a layer of currant jelly, then a thin layer of roll, followed by hartshorn jelly, and more roll.
Top with the whipped froth, heaping it high.
Decorate the rim of the dish with figures, fruits, or sweetmeats as desired.
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.
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Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Sherry + curranttop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together393 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
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Sherry + lemontop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,273 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
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Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Cream + sherrytop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,038 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).
Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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
- Thick cream
- Whipped into a froth that forms the light, airy topping of the dish.
- French rolls
- Thin slices soak up the cream and sherry, forming the soft layers beneath the froth.
- Currant jelly
- Adds sweetness and fruity tartness between the layers of roll.
- Hartshorn jelly
- Sets into a firm layer that gives body and structure between the roll slices.
- Sack (sherry)
- Adds aroma and a dry, wine-like flavour to the cream.
The step that matters
Pouring off the liquid from the froth. Whipped cream releases a thin liquid as it stands. Pouring it off carefully keeps the froth stiff and stable, so it holds its heaped shape over the layers instead of collapsing into the dish.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, sugar, sherry, lemon):
- Vanillafits better
- Raspberryfits better
- Orangefits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against cream, sugar, sherry, lemon. 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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