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 ↓
Whipped Cream
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the cream
Chill the cream in ice for several hours before use.
Sweeten the cream to taste and add a few drops of Jamaica rum.
Set the bowl in a pan of cracked ice.
Whip
Beat the cream with a Dover egg-beater, transferring the froth to a second bowl as it forms.
For a stiffer whip, strain the froth through a sieve and return the unbeaten cream to the bowl to beat again.
If the cream is not thick, dissolve ½ ounce of gelatin in a little cold milk for 1 hour, then heat in boiling water until dissolved.
Once the gelatin is cool but not set, whip it into the prepared cream.
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.
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Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Sugar + rumtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,908 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Cream + rumtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together842 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Cream
- Its fat and water, whipped with air, form the light foam structure of the dish.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps stabilise the whipped foam.
- Gelatine
- Sets into a network that firms the whipped cream so it holds its shape.
The step that matters
Chill the cream and bowl before whipping. Cold cream holds its fat globules firmly enough to trap air, so it whips to a stable foam. Warm cream whips slowly and collapses more easily.
“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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