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Dessert

Cream Filling

A thickened milk custard flavored with vanilla, used as a filling.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

Cream Filling

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Mix cornstarch, sugar, and salt in a bowl.

  2. Add hot milk.

Cook the custard

  1. Cook in a double boiler, stirring constantly until thick, about 15 minutes.

  2. Add the slightly beaten egg.

  3. Cook until it thickens.

  4. Remove from heat.

Finish

  1. Cool slightly.

  2. Add vanilla.

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

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

  5. Sugar + eggtop 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

Cornstarch
Swells with heat and thickens the milk into a smooth, sliceable cream.
Egg
Adds richness and helps set the cream as its proteins thicken with gentle heat.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the starch and egg thicken into a creamy texture.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and slightly raises the temperature at which the custard thickens.
Vanilla
Adds aroma and a rounded flavor to the cream.

The step that matters

Stir constantly while cooking. Constant stirring spreads heat evenly so the starch thickens smoothly and the egg does not overheat and scramble into lumps.

“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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