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Dessert

Curds and Cream

A dish of milk curds served with sweetened cream and colored confections.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Curds and Cream

Why it works: Sugar and cream 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 ↓

Curds and Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Make the curd

  1. Combine 2 quarts of new milk with 1 tablespoon of diluted acetic acid or vinegar in a dish.

  2. Let the mixture sit until it forms a soft curd.

  3. Drain off the whey.

  4. Fill a mold with the curd.

  5. Let the curd remain in the mold for 2 hours.

  6. Turn the curd out of the mold.

Serve

  1. Sprinkle colored comfits over the top.

  2. Sweeten some cream with sugar and a little grated nutmeg.

  3. Pour the sweetened cream around the curd.

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. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  2. Cream + nutmegtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,920 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  3. Milk + nutmegtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,685 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

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

  5. Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

What each ingredient does

New milk
Provides the milk proteins that coagulate into the soft curd.
Acetic acid or vinegar
Acidifies the milk so its proteins curdle and separate from the whey.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, fatty texture alongside the curd.
Sugar
Sweetens the cream to balance the tang of the curd.

The step that matters

Let the mixture sit until it forms a soft curd. Acid must be well mixed into the milk and given time to work; if the curd is not fully set, it will be loose and will not hold its shape when turned out of the mold.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegthe original
  3. Peppermintfits about as well
  4. Tarragonfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, vinegar, sugar, cream. 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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