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Dessert

Tea Cream

A chilled dessert made by infusing cream with coriander, cinnamon, lemon peel, and green tea, then folded into beaten egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Tea Cream

Why it works: Coriander and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,498 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Tea Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Make the infusion

  1. Boil the cream, coriander seeds, cinnamon, lemon peel, and sugar together for 10 minutes.

  2. Add the strong green tea to the mixture.

  3. Strain the cream into the beaten egg whites and whisk until it begins to thicken.

Set and serve

  1. Pour into cups or a deep dish and refrigerate until cold.

  2. Garnish with whole ratafias before serving.

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. Coriander + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,498 recipes

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

  2. Coriander + cinnamontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,635 recipes

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

  3. Cinnamon + lemontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,950 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Cinnamon + sugartop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Cinnamon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

Cream
Provides richness and a smooth, body-rich texture once chilled.
Egg whites
Whisked to foam, they lighten the mixture and help it thicken and set.
Green tea
Adds the tea flavour and a mild bitterness that balances the sweetness.
Sugar
Sweetens the cream and balances the tea's bitterness.

The step that matters

Straining the cream into the beaten egg whites. Pouring hot cream into egg whites too quickly can scramble or cook the whites unevenly. Add it gradually while whisking so the whites stay smooth, aerated and able to thicken.

Swap the coriander

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, cinnamon, lemon, sugar, green tea, egg):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Gingerfits better
  4. Corianderthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, cinnamon, lemon, sugar, green tea, 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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