Why it works: Milk and egg 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 ↓
Soft Caramel Custard
Ingredients
Directions
Make the custard
Boil the milk in a saucepan, reserving 1 cup.
Beat the eggs and mix in the reserved cold milk.
In a small frying pan, heat the sugar until it melts and just begins to smoke.
Stir the melted sugar into the boiling milk.
Add the egg and cold milk mixture to the boiling milk, stirring constantly until it thickens.
Cool and serve
Remove from heat and let cool.
Serve in glasses.
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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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base that gives the custard its body and creamy texture.
- Eggs
- Their proteins set with gentle heat, thickening the milk into a custard.
- Sugar
- Provides sweetness, and melted sugar adds caramel colour and flavour.
The step that matters
Stir constantly while the egg mixture thickens. Egg proteins set when heated, and uneven heat or stopping the stirring can make them curdle into lumps. Constant stirring spreads the heat evenly so the custard thickens 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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