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Dessert

Spanish Cream

A custard dessert made with milk, egg yolks, sugar, gelatin, wine, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Spanish Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Dissolve the gelatin in a little hot water in a saucepan over low heat.

  2. Boil the milk in a separate pot.

  3. Whisk the egg yolks with the sugar in a bowl until combined.

Make the custard

  1. Stir the egg yolk mixture into the boiling milk, then remove from heat.

  2. Fold in the beaten egg whites until well combined.

  3. Add the dissolved gelatin, vanilla, and wine, then mix well.

Set

  1. Pour the mixture into a mold and refrigerate until set.

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. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

  3. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Wine + vanillatop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together887 recipes

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

  5. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Gelatine
Sets the liquid mixture into a sliceable, wobbly structure as it chills.
Milk
Provides the liquid base and creamy body of the dessert.
Egg yolks
Thicken and enrich the custard, adding richness and smoothness.
Sugar
Sweetens the dessert and helps balance the egg flavour.
Egg whites
Beaten and folded in, they add lightness and airy texture.
Wine
Adds acidity and flavour depth to the cream.

The step that matters

Stir the egg yolk mixture into the boiling milk. Adding the yolks to very hot milk can scramble them. Stirring constantly while pouring in the yolk mixture and removing from heat helps the custard thicken smoothly without curdling.

“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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