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Dessert

Tea Cream

A chilled gelatin dessert made with tea, whipped cream, and egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Tea Cream

Why it works: Cream and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Tea Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. Dissolve the soaked gelatin and sugar in the boiling tea.

  2. Strain the mixture and let it cool.

Whip and combine

  1. Whip the cream in a bowl.

  2. Whip the egg whites in a separate bowl.

  3. Once the gelatin is cold, gradually beat it into the egg whites until it forms a firm froth.

  4. Gently fold in the whipped cream.

Set and serve

  1. Rinse a mold with cold water.

  2. Fill the mold with the mixture.

  3. Set the mold on ice.

  4. Serve with sweet 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. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  2. Milk + teatop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together738 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  3. Cream + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

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

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

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

Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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 liquid tea mixture into a firm, sliceable dessert.
Whipped cream
Adds richness and a light, airy texture to the set dessert.
Whites of eggs
Whipped into a froth that lightens the cream and gives structure.
White sugar
Sweetens the strong tea and balances its bitterness.
Strong mixed tea
Provides the main flavour and liquid base of the dessert.

The step that matters

Beating the gelatin into the egg whites. Gelatin must be cold but still liquid when added, so it does not set in lumps. Adding it gradually to the whites helps it blend into a stable foam rather than deflating it.

“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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