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Dessert

Caramel Custard in Cups

A custard dessert with a caramel base, baked in individual cups.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Caramel Custard in Cups

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the caramel

  1. Melt 4 tablespoons of sugar in a pan until light brown.

  2. Pour the caramel into 6 custard cups, shaking to cover the sides and bottom.

Make the custard

  1. In a bowl, whisk together the eggs, 3 tablespoons of sugar, cream, and vanilla.

  2. Pour the custard mixture into the caramel-coated cups.

Bake and serve

  1. Place the cups in a pan of hot water and bake at 350°F (175°C) for 10 to 15 minutes, or until set in the center.

  2. Serve the custards cold in the cups, or turn them out onto individual dishes and serve very cold.

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

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

  2. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  3. Cream + vanillatop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,301 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

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

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

  5. Egg + vanillatop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together27,347 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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
Set the custard as they cook, giving it a firm yet tender texture.
Cream
Adds richness and fat, producing a smooth, tender custard.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and, melted, forms the caramel that coats the cups.

The step that matters

Baking in a water bath. Egg custards turn grainy or curdle when cooked too hot. Baking the cups in hot water moderates the heat so the custard sets gently and evenly, and it should be removed once just set in the center.

“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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