Skip to main content
Dessert

Cream Filling

A sweet, thickened milk custard used as a filling for pastries.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

Cream Filling

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Scald the milk in a saucepan.

  2. In a bowl, mix sugar, cornstarch, and salt.

  3. Add the hot milk to the dry mixture and stir well.

  4. Cook in a double boiler, stirring occasionally, for 30 minutes.

  5. Beat the egg slightly and add it to the milk mixture.

  6. Cook until the egg thickens.

  7. Cool slightly and add vanilla for flavor.

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. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, 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 the thickened custard is built on.
Cornstarch
Thickens the mixture as it heats by swelling and gelatinizing in the liquid.
Egg
Adds richness and further thickens the custard as its proteins set with heat.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and helps keep it smooth and soft.

The step that matters

Cook until the egg thickens. Egg yolks can curdle if overheated, while undercooked starch leaves the custard thin. Stir steadily and cook just until it thickens, then stop the heat 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.

More pastry cream recipes

Puff 5Chocolate 3 See all 52 →

You might also like

Vanilla Ice CreamVanilla Ice Cream108 recipesWhite CakeWhite Cake431 recipesPound CakePound Cake373 recipesOrange Bundt CakeOrange Bundt Cake349 recipes