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Dessert

Ginger Cream

A chilled gelatin dessert made with cream, custard, sugar, and preserved ginger.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and sugar 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 ↓

Ginger Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mixture

  1. Soak the gelatine in the cold milk for about 15 minutes, then dissolve it over low heat.

  2. Whip the cream, then mix in the custard, sugar, and sliced ginger.

  3. Stir in 1 tablespoon of the ginger syrup, then add the dissolved gelatine.

Set and serve

  1. Stir occasionally until it begins to set, then pour into a mold rinsed with cold water.

  2. Once firm, turn out and serve.

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

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

  2. Sugar + gingertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together14,054 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  3. Cream + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

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

  4. Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

  5. Ginger + milktop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,519 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

Sugar and ginger barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 14,054 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 cream mixture into a firm, sliceable body as it cools.
Cream
Whipped, it traps air for a light texture and adds richness.
Custard
Adds body, richness, and a smooth, creamy mouthfeel to the dessert.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the sharpness of the ginger.
Preserved ginger
Provides the main spicy flavour and aroma of the dessert.

The step that matters

Pour when the mixture just begins to set. Gelatine sets as it cools. If you pour too early the ginger pieces sink and the set is weak; if you wait too long it firms in the bowl and will not fill the mold evenly.

Swap the ginger

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Gingerthe original
  4. Peppermintfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, sugar, milk. 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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