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Dessert

Italian Cream

A custard dessert made with milk, gelatin, egg yolks, sugar, and vanilla, set in a glass dish.

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 ↓

Italian Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Dissolve the gelatine in the milk for 30 minutes.

  2. Heat the mixture over the fire, stirring until melted and boiling.

  3. Pour the hot milk over the beaten egg yolks and sugar, mixing as for boiled custard.

  4. Return to the stove and cook until thickened.

Set and serve

  1. Flavor with vanilla and pour into a glass dish to cool and set.

  2. Serve when firm, topped with sweetened cream flavored with wine.

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 mixture into a firm, sliceable cream as it cools.
Egg yolks
Thicken the custard and add richness and a smooth texture.
Milk
Forms the base of the cream and gives it a soft, creamy body.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and balances the richness of the yolks and milk.

The step that matters

Pour the hot milk over the beaten egg yolks and sugar. Adding hot liquid too fast can scramble the yolks into lumps. Pour slowly while whisking so the yolks warm gradually and the custard stays smooth when it is returned to heat and thickens.

“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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