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Dessert

Swiss Cream

A layered dessert of macaroons or sponge cakes soaked in sherry, topped with a lemon-flavored cream thickened with arrowroot.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Swiss Cream

Why it works: Lemon and angelica match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 189 recipes. Both carry (e,e)-2,4-decadienal, which smells fatty, deep fried. The science ↓

Swiss Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. Layer the macaroons or sponge cakes in a glass dish.

  2. Pour enough sherry over them to cover well.

Make the cream

  1. In a lined saucepan, combine the cream, sugar, and lemon rind.

  2. Heat gently by the fire until well-flavored.

  3. Remove the lemon rind.

  4. Mix the arrowroot smoothly with the cold milk and add it to the cream.

  5. Boil gently for about 3 minutes, stirring constantly.

  6. Remove from heat.

  7. Stir until nearly cold.

  8. Add the lemon juice.

Assemble and garnish

  1. Pour the mixture over the cakes.

  2. Garnish with strips of angelica, candied citron, or bright-colored jelly or preserve.

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. Lemon + angelicatop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together189 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  2. Arrowroot + lemontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together553 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Arrowroot + angelicatop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

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

  5. Milk + sherrytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,479 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Cream
Provides richness and body, setting into a smooth, creamy custard as it thickens.
Arrowroot
Thickens the cream into a smooth, glossy custard without making it cloudy.
Macaroons or sponge cakes
Form the soaked base layer that absorbs the sherry and supports the custard.
Lump sugar
Sweetens the cream and balances the acidity of the lemon.
Lemon rind
Infuses the cream with aromatic lemon flavour before being removed.

The step that matters

Boil gently for about 3 minutes, stirring constantly. Arrowroot must be brought to a gentle boil to fully thicken, but vigorous boiling or no stirring can scorch the cream or leave it lumpy and thin.

Swap the angelica

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, sugar, arrowroot, lemon, milk, sherry):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Angelicathe original
  4. Thymefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, sugar, arrowroot, lemon, milk, sherry. 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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