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Dessert

Creme Patissiere, or Pastry Cream

A thickened custard made from flour, egg yolks, cream, sugar, butter, and optional lemon rind.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Creme Patissiere, or Pastry Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Gradually add the beaten yolks of the eggs to the flour, stirring briskly.

  2. In portions, add the boiling cream to the mixture, stirring continuously.

  3. Transfer the mixture to a clean saucepan.

  4. Cook over low heat until thickened.

  5. Remove the custard from heat and stir well.

  6. Return the custard to heat and simmer for 6 to 8 minutes.

Finish and flavor

  1. Pour the custard into a basin.

  2. Add the sugar, butter, and optional lemon rind.

  3. Mix in the crushed ratifias for added flavor.

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. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  2. Flour + biscuittop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together889 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  4. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Biscuit + lemontop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together697 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Egg yolks
Thicken the custard and add richness as they set with gentle heat.
Flour
Stabilizes the custard so it thickens without becoming grainy or runny.
Cream
Provides the liquid base and fat that give the custard a smooth, rich texture.
Butter
Adds fat for a glossy finish and a softer, richer mouthfeel.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and balances the richness of the yolks and cream.

The step that matters

Return the custard to heat and simmer. Egg yolks need to be brought to a simmer to fully thicken, but overheating or boiling too hard can curdle them. Stir constantly and keep the heat controlled.

Swap the lemon

The recipe marks lemon as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, egg, cream, sugar, butter, biscuit):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Coconutfits about as well
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, egg, cream, sugar, butter, biscuit. 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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