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Dessert

American Cream

A gelatin-based custard dessert made with milk, eggs, sugar, vanilla, and gelatin.

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

American Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Soak the gelatin in cold water for 30 minutes until covered.

  2. Add the cold milk to the soaked gelatin and heat over the fire, stirring until dissolved.

  3. Beat the yolks of the eggs with 10 tablespoons of sugar and add to the mixture, letting it boil for 2 minutes.

Assemble and chill

  1. Beat the egg whites with 6 tablespoons of sugar until stiff.

  2. Pour the custard over the beaten egg whites and mix well, then add 1 teaspoon of vanilla.

  3. Pour the mixture into a mold and refrigerate for at least 5 hours 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. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

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

  2. Gelatin + sugartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,778 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

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

  4. Gelatin + vanillatop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together924 recipes

    Shared aroma: maltol (caramel, sweet).

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

Eggs
Yolks thicken the custard and whites, beaten with sugar, lighten the dessert's texture.
Gelatin
Sets the liquid mixture so it holds its shape when chilled.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard and adds richness and body.
Sugar
Sweetens the dessert and helps stabilize the beaten egg whites.

The step that matters

Beating the egg whites until stiff. Whites must be beaten to stiff peaks with sugar so they hold air. If they are underbeaten or greasy, they will not lighten the mixture, and the dessert will be dense.

“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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