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Dessert

Fried Cream

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and vanilla 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 ↓

Fried Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Put milk in a double boiler with salt and cinnamon.

  2. When boiling, add sugar and stir until thickened.

  3. Add beaten egg yolks and cook for a few minutes to set the eggs.

  4. Add butter and vanilla extract, then strain into a flat dish to make a layer ½ inch thick.

Coat and fry

  1. Once cold, cut into round pieces.

  2. Coat each piece with sifted cracker crumbs and egg.

  3. Fry in hot fat until amber in color.

Dry and serve

  1. Lay on brown paper to dry and sprinkle with sugar before serving.

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. Cinnamon + vanillatop 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. Cinnamon + flourtop 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

Milk
Forms the liquid base that thickens into the custard body.
Egg yolks
Set during cooking to give the custard firmness and richness.
Cornstarch
Thickens the milk mixture so it holds its shape when cooled.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the custard brown when fried.
Cracker crumbs
Form a crisp, golden outer crust on the cut custard pieces.
Butter
Adds fat for a richer, smoother custard texture.

The step that matters

Set the egg yolks gently. Egg yolks thicken when heated but can curdle or turn grainy if they get too hot too fast, so cook them slowly while stirring to keep the custard 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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