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Dessert

Tangerine Cream

A custard-like dessert made from orange pulp, sugar, egg yolks, brandy, cream, and gelatin.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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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 ↓

Tangerine Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the orange base

  1. Boil the oranges in water for 1 hour.

  2. Cut the oranges in half and pass the juice and pulp through a fine sieve.

  3. Add the sugar to the orange pulp.

  4. Beat the egg yolks and mix them into the orange pulp.

  5. Stir in the brandy.

Make the cream and set

  1. Boil the cream and pour it over the mixture, stirring constantly.

  2. Add the dissolved gelatine and stir until nearly cold.

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

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

  2. Orange + brandytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,706 recipes

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

  3. Brandy + creamtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,635 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

  4. Egg + brandytop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,340 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetoin (butter, cream).

  5. Sugar + brandytop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together11,939 recipes

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

Sugar and brandy barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 11,939 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

Oranges
Provide the main flavour and acidity, with the pulp giving body to the cream.
Castor sugar
Sweetens the mixture and helps balance the sharpness of the orange.
Egg yolks
Thicken the mixture and add richness through their emulsifying proteins.
Cream
Adds fat for a smooth, rich texture that feels creamy on the palate.
Gelatine
Sets the mixture so it holds its shape when turned out of the mold.

The step that matters

Pouring the boiled cream into the orange mixture. Egg yolks can scramble if very hot liquid is added too quickly. Pouring slowly while stirring constantly spreads the heat evenly and keeps the custard smooth.

Swap the orange

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Raspberryfits better
  4. Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, brandy, 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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