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Dessert

Spanish Cream

A custard dessert made with gelatin, milk, egg yolks, sugar, powdered sugar, and vanilla.

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 ↓

Spanish Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the gelatin in 1 pint of milk for 2 hours.

  2. Add 1 pint of milk.

  3. Bring to a boil.

  4. Beat the egg yolks until light.

  5. Mix in 6 tablespoons of sugar.

Make the custard

  1. Add the yolk mixture to the boiling milk.

  2. Let it come to a boil.

  3. Remove from heat.

  4. Beat the egg whites, then add 5 tablespoons of powdered sugar.

  5. Fold in the beaten egg whites.

  6. Flavor with vanilla.

Set

  1. Pour into molds.

  2. Let stand overnight.

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. Egg + sugartop 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

Gelatine
Sets the liquid into a firm, sliceable structure as it cools.
Egg yolks
Thicken the milk mixture and add richness and a smooth, creamy texture.
Egg whites
Folded in beaten, they add lightness and an airy texture to the set cream.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the gelatine sets and the eggs thicken.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the richness of the eggs and milk.

The step that matters

Add the yolk mixture to the boiling milk. Egg yolks thicken when heated but can scramble and curdle if they meet very hot liquid too quickly. Adding the mixture to the milk while stirring keeps 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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