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Dessert

Swiss Cream

A chilled lemon cream dessert with macaroons and sponge cake.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Swiss Cream

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 ↓

Swiss Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cream

  1. Rub the sugar on the rinds of the lemons.

  2. Set the cream on the stove, reserving enough to mix with the flour to make a paste, adding a spoonful or two of the hot cream.

  3. Boil the cream for 5 minutes before stirring in the flour paste.

  4. When nearly cold, add the lemon juice.

Assemble and serve

  1. Cover the bottom of a dish with macaroons, pour in some cream, then add more sponge cake.

  2. Garnish with sliced citron.

  3. Make it the day 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.

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

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

  2. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  3. Lemon + flourtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  5. Cream + flourtop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).

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
Provides richness and body, and thickens into a soft set when cooked with flour.
Flour
Thickens the cream into a smooth custard-like texture when cooked.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and, rubbed on the rinds, draws out lemon aroma.
Lemons
Their juice adds acidity and bright flavour, and their rinds add aroma.
Macaroons
Soften as they soak up the cream, giving the dessert a tender, moist texture.

The step that matters

Add the lemon juice when the cream is nearly cold. Acid can curdle hot dairy and make the cream grainy. Cooling the cream first lets the lemon juice blend in smoothly and keeps the texture silky.

Swap the lemon

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, sugar, flour. 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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