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Dessert

Caramel Cream

A caramel custard-like dessert made with brown sugar, milk, corn starch, walnuts, and vanilla, set in a mold.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Caramel Cream

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 ↓

Caramel Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Make the caramel custard

  1. In a saucepan, stir brown sugar over medium heat until caramelized.

  2. Heat milk in a separate pot until it reaches a boiling point.

  3. Add the caramelized sugar to the boiling milk.

  4. Dissolve corn starch in a little milk and add it to the mixture.

  5. Cook for a couple of minutes, stirring constantly.

  6. Flavor with vanilla and stir in chopped walnuts.

Set and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a mold and let it set.

  2. Serve with rich 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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Corn + vanillatop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,943 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  4. Corn + walnuttop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together349 recipes

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

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

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

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

Brown sugar
Caramelizes to provide the main sweetness and deep caramel flavor.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the cream and carries the flavor.
Corn starch
Thickens the milk mixture so it can hold its shape when set.
Walnuts
Add crunch and a nutty flavor against the smooth cream.

The step that matters

Cooking the starch while stirring constantly. Cornstarch only thickens fully when heated while stirred, since stirring keeps it dispersed and prevents lumps or scorching on the bottom of the pan.

Swap the walnut

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

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Chestnutfits better
  3. Hazelnutfits better
  4. Walnutthe original

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