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Dessert

American Cream

A custard-like dessert made with milk, egg yolks, gelatin, and vanilla, set in a mold and chilled.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

American Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Dissolve the gelatine in a small amount of cold water.

  2. Heat the milk in a saucepan.

Make the custard

  1. Add the dissolved gelatine, beaten egg yolks, and sugar to the milk.

  2. Bring the mixture to a boil.

  3. Beat the egg whites with a little sugar until light and fluffy.

  4. Remove the milk mixture from heat and stir in the beaten egg whites.

  5. Add the vanilla and mix well.

Set and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a mold and refrigerate until set, preferably overnight.

  2. Serve 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.

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. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

  4. Milk + sugartop 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

Gelatine
Sets the liquid mixture into a firm, sliceable dessert when chilled.
Milk
Forms the creamy base that the dessert is made from.
Egg yolks
Thicken the mixture and add richness and a smooth texture.
Egg whites
Whipped to add lightness and airy texture to the set dessert.
Sugar
Sweetens the dessert and helps stabilise the whipped egg whites.

The step that matters

Stir in the beaten egg whites off the heat. Hot custard can deflate whipped egg whites and make the texture heavy. Removing the mixture from heat first keeps the foam light and airy.

“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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