Name: Brandy Cream
Ingredients: 2 dozen blanched almonds; 2 dozen bitter almonds; 5 egg yolks; ½ cup cream; 2 glasses brandy; 1 quart thin cream; sugar to taste; ratafia drops (optional)

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 ↓

Brandy Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the almond flavouring

Boil the blanched and pounded bitter almonds in a little milk until cold.

Make the cream

In a bowl, beat the egg yolks with the cream and add sugar to taste.
Mix in the brandy and the cooled almond mixture.
Pour in the thin cream and stir gently over low heat until it thickens, without boiling.

Serve

Pour into cups or low glasses and let cool.
Add a ratafia drop to each cup if desired.

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.

Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Cream + brandytop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,635 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).
Almond + creamtop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,130 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).
Almond + brandytop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,969 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).
Egg + brandytop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,340 recipes

Shared aroma: acetoin (butter, cream).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks: Thicken the cream as they set gently over low heat, giving it a rich, smooth body.
Brandy: Adds a strong spirited aroma and flavour that balances the sweetness of the cream.
Thin cream: Forms the base of the dessert, providing fat that gives a smooth, soft texture.
Bitter almonds: Provide a distinct nutty, almond aroma that flavours the cream.

The step that matters

Thickening without boiling. Egg yolks thicken through gentle heat, as their proteins coagulate around 70°C. If the mixture boils, the yolks can scramble and turn grainy, so the cream must be stirred gently over low heat only until it coats a spoon.

“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.