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Dessert

Spanish Cream

A custard dessert made with milk or cream, egg yolks, sugar, vanilla, wine, and gelatin.

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 ↓

Spanish Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. In a saucepan, combine the cream and gelatine, stirring until boiling.

  2. Pour the mixture over the beaten egg yolks and sugar.

  3. Return to the saucepan and cook for a few minutes without boiling.

  4. Remove from heat and stir for a few minutes.

Finish and set

  1. Add the vanilla and wine when nearly cold.

  2. Pour into a mold and turn out.

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 + white winetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together929 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).

  4. White wine + vanillatop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together110 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 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

Egg yolks
Thicken the custard and add richness as they gently cook.
Gelatine
Sets the cooled mixture so it holds its shape when turned out.
Milk or single cream
Forms the creamy base that gives the dessert its body and mouthfeel.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and balances the richness of the cream and yolks.
White wine
Adds acidity and a light flavour to the cooled custard.

The step that matters

Cook the custard without boiling. Egg yolks thicken as they heat but scramble if they get too hot or boil. Gentle heat keeps the custard smooth, and stirring it off the heat helps it cool evenly before the wine and vanilla go in.

“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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