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Dessert

Orange Cream

A custard made from Seville orange juice, water, sugar, egg whites, yolks, and cream.

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

Orange Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the juice

  1. Remove the rind from the Seville oranges and squeeze out the juice.

  2. In a saucepan, combine the orange juice, water, and sugar.

Make the custard

  1. Add the beaten egg whites and heat over medium heat, stirring continuously until thick and white.

  2. Strain the mixture through a fine cloth and stir until cool.

  3. In another bowl, mix the beaten egg yolks with some cream and add to the saucepan.

  4. Stir over low heat until just about to boil, then pour into a basin.

  5. Stir until completely cool, then transfer to serving glasses.

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. Orange + sugartop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together19,212 recipes

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

  3. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Egg + creamtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together42,166 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Orange + creamtop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,170 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

Orange and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 19,212 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

Eggs
Egg whites thicken the mixture and the yolks enrich and set the custard.
Seville oranges
Provide the juice and bitter-sharp acidity that flavours the custard.
Sugar
Sweetens the mixture and balances the sharpness of the orange juice.
Cream
Adds richness and a smoother, softer texture to the custard.

The step that matters

Stir the yolks in over low heat. Egg yolks can curdle or scramble if overheated, so stir gently over low heat and stop just short of boiling to keep the custard smooth.

Swap the orange

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, 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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