Skip to main content
Dessert

Noyeau Cream

A chilled cream set with fish gelatin, lemon juice, and sweetened with noyeau and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

Noyeau Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Make the cream mixture

  1. Dissolve the isinglass in a little boiling water.

  2. Add the lemon juice and strain this into the cream.

  3. Stir in sufficient noyeau and sugar to flavor and sweeten the mixture.

Set and serve

  1. Whisk the cream well and pour it into an oiled mold.

  2. Set the mold in ice or a cool place until set.

  3. Turn it out and garnish the dish to taste.

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. Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

  3. Lemon + creamtop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,640 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Lemon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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

Isinglass
Gelatin-like setting agent that firms the cream so it holds its shape when turned out.
Cream
Provides richness and fat, giving the set dessert a smooth, creamy texture.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavor and balances the sweetness of the sugar.
Pounded sugar
Sweetens the mixture and balances the acidity of the lemon juice.
Noyeau
Adds the characteristic almond-like aroma and flavor of the dish.

The step that matters

Dissolve the isinglass fully before straining into the cream. Isinglass must be completely dissolved in hot liquid to set evenly; undissolved granules leave gritty or weak patches once the cream chills.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Strawberryfits better
  3. Raspberryfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, 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.

You might also like

Lemon CakeLemon Cake228 recipesLemon IceLemon Ice147 recipesLemon SherbetLemon Sherbet103 recipesLemon CustardLemon Custard64 recipes