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Dessert

Italian Cream

A custard-like dessert made with cream, powdered sugar, lemon juice, white wine, isinglass, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Italian Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cream base

  1. Divide the cream into two bowls.

  2. In one bowl, mix the powdered sugar, lemon juice, and white wine.

  3. Add the other pint of cream and stir vigorously.

Set and chill

  1. Boil the isinglass with the water until reduced by half.

  2. Stir the lukewarm isinglass into the cream mixture.

  3. Pour into a glass dish and let it congeal.

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. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  2. Lemon + white winetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,832 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  3. Cream + white winetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,760 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

  4. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

  5. Cream + lemontop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,640 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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

Cream
Forms the rich body and fat that give the dessert its smooth, creamy texture.
Isinglass
Gelatin-like protein that sets the mixture so it holds its shape when chilled.
Powdered sugar
Adds sweetness and dissolves easily into the cream mixture.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavor and balances the sweetness and richness.
White wine
Adds acidity and aroma that complement the lemon and cream.

The step that matters

Stir the lukewarm isinglass into the cream mixture. Isinglass sets as it cools, so if it is too hot it can thin the cream, and if it is cold or set it can clump and not blend evenly. Adding it while still lukewarm lets it disperse smoothly before the mixture sets.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, sugar, white wine):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Strawberryfits better
  3. Raspberryfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, sugar, white wine. 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.

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