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Dessert

Spanish Cream

A gelatin-based custard dessert made with eggs, milk, sugar, vanilla, and gelatin.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Spanish Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the gelatin

  1. Cover the gelatin with cold milk or water, using only as much as necessary.

  2. Soak for 1 to 2 hours.

Make the custard

  1. Bring the milk to a boil.

  2. Beat the yolks and soft sugar together in a bowl until light.

  3. Pour a little of the boiling milk onto the eggs and sugar, and beat well.

  4. Pour the egg mixture into the boiling milk.

  5. Add the gelatin to the milk and stir over boiling water until the gelatin dissolves and the mixture thickens slightly.

  6. Do not let it boil.

  7. Remove from heat and strain.

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. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

  3. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

  4. Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

  5. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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 yolks thicken the custard and give it a rich, smooth body.
Gelatine
Sets the cooled cream so it holds its shape when turned out.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the eggs and gelatine set into a cream.
Soft sugar
Sweetens the custard and helps the yolks whip to a light texture.

The step that matters

Do not let it boil. Egg yolks curdle and turn grainy when overheated, so the custard must be stirred gently over simmering water and never allowed to boil.

“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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