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Dessert

Spanish Cream

A custard dessert made with milk, egg yolks, sugar, vanilla, gelatin, and folded egg whites, chilled and served with cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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

Make the custard

  1. Soak the gelatine in the milk until thoroughly dissolved over low heat.

  2. Beat the egg yolks lightly and mix in the granulated sugar.

  3. Stir in the milk and gelatine mixture, add vanilla, and cook over low heat while stirring constantly.

Add the whites and chill

  1. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites with enough sugar to stiffen them and add vanilla for flavor.

  2. Remove the custard from heat and gently fold in the beaten egg whites.

  3. Chill the mixture in the refrigerator for five to six hours.

  4. 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. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  4. Vanilla + creamtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,301 recipes

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

  5. Milk + creamtop 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

Gelatine
Sets the milk and egg mixture into a soft, sliceable custard as it cools.
Egg yolks
Thicken the milk mixture and add richness and a custard body when cooked.
Egg whites
Whipped and folded in, they add a light, airy texture to the set custard.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the gelatine and egg yolks set into custard.
Granulated sugar
Sweetens the custard and helps stabilize the beaten egg whites.

The step that matters

Fold the egg whites gently into the custard. Folding keeps the whipped egg whites full of trapped air. Stirring vigorously deflates them, leaving a denser, less airy dessert.

“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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