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Dessert

Spanish Cream

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

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. Pour ½ cup of milk over the gelatin and let it stand for 20 minutes.

  2. Add the remaining milk, yolks of the eggs, and 6 tablespoons of sugar.

  3. Heat the mixture until it is scalding hot, then remove from the stove and let it cool.

Finish and serve

  1. Beat the egg whites with 4 teaspoons of sugar and flavor with vanilla.

  2. Serve the cream cold with a dollop of 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.

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

Eggs
Yolks thicken the custard and the whites, beaten, add lightness and volume.
Gelatine
Sets the custard so it holds its shape when cooled.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard and provides its creamy body.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and helps stabilise the beaten egg whites.

The step that matters

Heating the custard mixture. The mixture must reach scalding hot to thicken the egg yolks, but overheating can curdle the eggs and leave a grainy texture. Heat gently and stir to keep it smooth.

“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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