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Dessert

Spanish Cream

A chilled custard made with milk, eggs, gelatin, sugar, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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

Prepare

  1. Soak the gelatine in ½ pint of milk for one hour.

  2. Beat the egg whites in a deep dish until stiff, then set aside in a cool place.

  3. Boil 1 quart of milk.

Make the custard

  1. Beat the egg yolks with sugar to taste.

  2. When the milk is about to boil, stir in the egg yolks and soaked gelatine.

  3. Let it thicken like custard, then pour it hot over the beaten egg whites, stirring continuously. Flavor with vanilla to taste.

Set and serve

  1. Pour into molds and refrigerate for at least four hours before serving.

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. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

  5. Egg + sugartop 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

Gelatine
Sets the custard so it holds its shape when chilled.
Egg whites
Beaten until stiff, they add lightness and an airy structure to the dessert.
Egg yolks
Thicken the custard as they heat and add richness.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the custard thickens in.
Sugar
Adds sweetness to the egg yolks and the finished custard.

The step that matters

Pour the hot custard over the whites while stirring continuously. Egg yolk proteins thicken as they heat, so the custard must not overheat or it can scramble. Stirring while pouring blends the warm custard evenly into the whites and helps prevent lumps and deflation of the foam.

“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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