Name: Orange Cream
Ingredients: 1½ cups cream; 2 egg yolks; 2 tablespoons sugar; ½ ounce Cox's gelatine; ⅓ cup orange juice; Grated rind of 1 orange; ¼ cup cold water

Why it works: Cream and sugar 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

Soak the gelatine in ¼ cup of cold water for 2 hours.
Soak the orange rind in the orange juice.

Make the custard

Melt the gelatine by placing the bowl over boiling water.
Add the orange juice to the melted gelatine.
Heat until hot and the gelatine is dissolved, then remove from heat.
Carefully stir in the beaten egg yolks and sugar.
Return to heat over hot water and stir until thickened, but do not boil.
Remove from heat and stir in the cream.
Strain the mixture into a mould rinsed with cold water.

Set and serve

Refrigerate until hardened, then turn out onto a plate and serve very cold with cream.

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.

Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Sugar + orangetop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together19,212 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together122,807 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Cream + eggtop 24% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together42,166 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Cream + orangetop 28% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,170 recipes

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

Sugar and orange 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

Gelatine: Sets the cream and juice mixture into a firm, sliceable gel as it cools.
Egg yolks: Thicken the mixture gently and add richness when stirred over heat.
Cream: Adds richness and a smooth, soft texture to the set dessert.
Orange juice: Provides the main orange flavour and acidity, and liquid for the gel.
Sugar: Sweetens the dessert and balances the acidity of the orange juice.

The step that matters

Return to heat over hot water and stir until thickened, but do not boil.. Egg yolks thicken through gentle heat, but above about 80°C they scramble and curdle. Keeping the water hot rather than boiling and stirring constantly gives a smooth custard.