Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Apple Custard
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.
Prepare the custard
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a bowl, mix the scraped apples, sugar, butter, egg yolks, milk, nutmeg, and a pinch of salt.
Pour the mixture into a baking dish and bake until nearly set.
Top and brown
In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form, then gradually add sugar.
Spread the beaten egg whites over the custard and return to the oven to brown slightly.
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.
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Apple + milktop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,104 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
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Apple + nutmegtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,790 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Apple + buttertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,706 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Milk + nutmegtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together14,685 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Eggs
- Egg yolks thicken the custard, while beaten whites form a light meringue topping.
- Apples
- Provide the fruit flavor and moisture that the custard base is built around.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the custard and stabilizes the beaten egg whites in the topping.
- Milk
- Supplies liquid that, with the eggs, sets into a soft custard.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat that gives the custard a smoother, softer texture.
The step that matters
Baking the custard until nearly set. Egg proteins set as they heat, and overbaking makes the custard curdle, weep, and turn grainy. Pulling it out while still slightly wobbly lets residual heat finish the set.
Swap the apple
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, egg, milk, nutmeg):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Lemonfits better
- Applethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, egg, milk, nutmeg. 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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