Skip to main content
Dessert

Italian Cream

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

Italian Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the custard

  1. Soak the gelatin in a little cold milk.

  2. Heat the whole egg and egg yolks.

  3. Add the heated eggs and yolks to the hot milk.

  4. Strain the mixture into a jug.

  5. Add the sugar to the jug.

  6. Place the jug in a saucepan of boiling water.

  7. Stir the mixture until the custard coats the spoon, being careful not to curdle.

Combine and set

  1. While the custard cools, beat the cream until stiff.

  2. Melt the gelatin.

  3. Add the melted gelatin to the custard.

  4. Flavor the mixture.

  5. Thoroughly mix the custard and cream together.

  6. Pour the mixture into a wetted mold immediately.

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

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

  4. Cream + vanillatop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,301 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  5. Cream + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

Double cream
Whipped to stiffness, it gives the dessert its rich, light body.
Egg yolks
Thicken the custard through gentle heat, adding richness and structure.
Whole egg
Adds further thickening power and richness to the custard.
Gelatine
Sets the mixture so it holds its shape when turned out of the mold.
Castor sugar
Sweetens the custard and balances the richness of the cream and yolks.
Hot milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard, carrying the flavor and thinning the eggs.

The step that matters

Stir the custard over boiling water until it coats the spoon. Egg proteins set with gentle heat, and too much heat scrambles them into curds. Stirring over a water bath keeps the custard smooth enough to blend with the cream and gelatin.

“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.

More italian cream recipes

Custard 4Fudge 3Ice 3 See all 168 →

You might also like

Vanilla Ice CreamVanilla Ice Cream108 recipesWhite CakeWhite Cake431 recipesPound CakePound Cake373 recipesOrange Bundt CakeOrange Bundt Cake349 recipes