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Dessert

Ginger Cream

A chilled ginger-flavored cream made with isinglass, preserved ginger, cream, sugar, and lemon juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Ginger and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,154 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Ginger Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Melt isinglass in water with grated ginger; let it boil, then strain through muslin and cool.

  2. Slice preserved ginger and add to cream, pounded sugar, syrup, and lemon juice.

Set and pour

  1. Whisk all ingredients together for 10 minutes.

  2. Add the cooled isinglass and whisk again.

  3. Pour mixture into a mold.

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. Ginger + lemontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,154 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Sugar + syruptop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Isinglass
Gelatin-like setting agent that firms the cream so it holds its shape when turned out.
Cream
Provides fat and richness, giving the set dessert a smooth, creamy texture.
Pounded lump sugar
Adds sweetness and helps balance the sharpness of the lemon and ginger.
Preserved ginger
Contributes sweet, spicy ginger flavour and pieces of texture throughout the cream.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and cuts the richness of the cream.

The step that matters

Add the cooled isinglass. Isinglass must be cool but still liquid when added to the cream; if hot, it can weaken or cook the cream, and if it has begun to set, it will form lumps and not blend evenly.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits about as well
  3. Pearfits about as well
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ginger, cream, sugar, syrup. 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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