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Dessert

Macaroon Cream

A chilled custard dessert made with gelatin, milk, eggs, sugar, vanilla, and pounded macaroons.

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 ↓

Macaroon Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Soak the gelatin in cold water.

  2. Make a custard by combining milk, egg yolks, sugar, and salt in a saucepan over low heat.

  3. Add the soaked gelatin to the custard and stir until dissolved.

  4. Strain the mixture into a pan set in ice water.

Set and serve

  1. Add the pounded macaroons and vanilla, stirring until it begins to thicken.

  2. Fold in the beaten egg whites.

  3. Pour into a mould, chill, and serve garnished with macaroons.

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

Granulated gelatine
Sets the cream so it holds its shape when chilled.
Egg yolks
Thicken the milk into a smooth custard and add richness.
Egg whites
Whipped and folded in to give the cream a light, airy texture.
Milk
Forms the base of the custard and adds creaminess.
Pounded macaroons
Add almond flavour and body to the cream.

The step that matters

Strain the mixture into a pan set in ice water. Cooling the custard quickly while stirring keeps it from setting unevenly before the gelatine can firm it. Folding the whites in only after it begins to thicken keeps the cream light rather than deflated.

“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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