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Royal Custard

A custard made with eggs, milk, salt, and cayenne, baked in a water bath.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Royal Custard

Why it works: Egg and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 88,785 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Royal Custard

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the custard

  1. Beat the egg and egg yolks slightly.

  2. Add the milk, salt, and cayenne, then strain the mixture into a small, lightly buttered pan.

Bake

  1. Place the pan in a larger pan filled with hot water.

  2. Bake until firm.

Cool and serve

  1. Cool, then remove from the mold and cut into small cubes or fancy shapes.

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. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set the custard into a firm structure as they cook.
Egg yolks
Add richness and a smooth, tender texture as they set.
Milk
Provides liquid and a creamy body that cooks into a soft custard.

The step that matters

Baking in hot water. Eggs set when heated, but high heat makes them curdle and turn grainy. Placing the pan in a larger pan of hot water surrounds the custard with gentle, even heat, so it firms up smoothly.

“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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