Skip to main content
Dessert

Strawberry Float

A chilled dessert made with milk, strawberries, and beaten egg whites.

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

Why it works: Milk and strawberry are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,130 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Strawberry Float

Ingredients

Directions

Make the float

  1. Scald the milk in a double boiler.

  2. Rub the strawberries through a sieve to make pulp.

  3. Beat the egg whites until very stiff. Stir in the strawberry pulp and beat well.

  4. Drop spoonfuls of the mixture onto the milk, keeping them separated.

  5. Cover and cook until the float feels firm to the touch.

Make the custard

  1. Beat the egg yolks with the sugar.

  2. Add the yolk mixture to the hot milk and cook until thick.

Assemble and chill

  1. When cold, add the remaining strawberries.

  2. Pour into a glass dish and pile the beaten egg whites on top.

  3. Set on ice until 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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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 + strawberrytop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,130 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

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

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

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

  4. Strawberry + sugartop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,060 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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

Egg whites
Whipped to a stiff foam, they give the float its light, airy structure.
Egg yolks
Thicken the custard as they heat, giving it body and richness.
Milk
Forms the custard base that the float and yolks sit in.
Strawberries
Add fruit flavour and colour through both the pulp and the whole berries.
Sugar
Sweetens the yolk mixture and balances the tart strawberries.

The step that matters

Cover and cook the float until firm. Egg whites set when heated, but overcooking makes them dry, rubbery, or weepy. Gentle covered heat sets the foam while keeping it tender and light.

Swap the strawberry

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, egg, sugar):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Raisinfits better
  4. Strawberrythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, egg, sugar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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.

You might also like

Strawberry Ice CreamStrawberry Ice Cream122 recipesStrawberry SherbetStrawberry Sherbet48 recipesStrawberry Water IceStrawberry Water Ice24 recipesStrawberry FoamStrawberry Foam7 recipes