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Dessert

Creme Frite

A fried custard dessert made from milk, eggs, sugar, and butter, coated in cracker dust and fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Vanilla and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,287 recipes. Both carry 4-methoxybenzaldehyde, which smells sweet, anise. The science ↓

Creme Frite

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the custard

  1. Blend the corn-starch and flour with a little cold milk.

  2. Boil the rest of the milk with the cinnamon in a saucepan.

  3. When it boils, stir in the corn-starch and flour mixture.

  4. Stir and boil for 3 minutes until the flour is thoroughly cooked.

  5. Remove from heat and stir in the beaten yolks and sugar.

  6. Return to heat and stir over boiling water until thickened, but do not boil.

  7. Remove the cinnamon stick.

  8. Stir in the butter and vanilla.

Set and coat

  1. Pour the mixture into a shallow, buttered dish to cool, about 1 inch deep.

  2. Once cold and firm, cut into rounds or squares.

  3. Dip each piece in cracker dust.

  4. Dip each piece in beaten egg.

  5. Dip each piece again in cracker dust.

Fry and serve

  1. Fry in deep boiling lard until golden.

  2. Set in the oven at 350°F (175°C) for 4 to 5 minutes to soften the cream inside.

  3. Sprinkle with sugar.

  4. Serve hot in a pyramid on cut paper.

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. Vanilla + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).

  2. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  3. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, 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

Corn-starch
Thickens the milk mixture into a firm, sliceable custard when heated.
Flour
Adds body to the custard and helps it hold its shape when cut.
Egg yolks
Enrich the custard and help it set firm once cooled.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the starch and yolks thicken into custard.
Lard
Fries the coated pieces, creating a golden, crisp crust.
Egg
Binds the cracker dust to the cut pieces so the coating adheres while frying.

The step that matters

Stir over boiling water until thickened, but do not boil. Starch thickens as it heats, but if the custard boils hard or scorches it can turn lumpy or grainy. Gentle heat over water keeps the yolks from curdling and gives a smooth, firm set once cooled.

“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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