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Dessert

Ginger Cream

A chilled custard dessert flavored with ginger and sweetened with sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Syrup and sugar match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,842 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Ginger Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Beat the egg yolks and add them to the nearly boiling milk, stirring until thickened.

  2. Add the sugar and set aside to cool.

Finish and set

  1. Dissolve the gelatine in 1 tablespoon of water, then mix in the ginger syrup and diced ginger.

  2. Pour this mixture into the cooled custard.

  3. Whip the cream until stiff, then gently fold it into the custard.

  4. Pour into a prepared mold and chill on ice or in a cold place until ready to 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. Syrup + sugartop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

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

  3. Cream + syruptop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,964 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Ginger + syruptop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together950 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Ginger + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together14,054 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

Ginger and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 14,054 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

Egg yolks
Thicken the milk into a custard and add richness.
Cream
Whipped, it adds lightness and a smooth, rich texture.
Leaf gelatine
Sets the mixture so it holds its shape when chilled.
Preserved ginger
Adds bite and a sweet, spicy ginger flavour throughout.

The step that matters

Folding the whipped cream into the custard. If the custard is still warm or the cream is over-whipped, the cream deflates or the mixture loses its airy texture. Fold gently and keep the custard cool but still fluid so the gelatine sets evenly.

Swap the ginger

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Gingerthe original
  4. Peppermintfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, milk, syrup, 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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