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Dessert

Burnt Cream

A custard made with milk, egg yolks, cream, flour, and sugar, finished by browning the top.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,341 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Burnt Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Boil the milk with the bay leaf and cinnamon.

  2. In a bowl, beat the egg yolks.

  3. Add the cream, flour, and sugar to the egg yolks.

  4. Stir the mixture into the boiling milk and cook over low heat until thickened like custard.

Brown and serve

  1. Pour into a dish, sprinkle with sugar, and brown the top with a salamander.

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. Cinnamon + flourtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  3. Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Cinnamon + sugartop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Cinnamon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

Egg yolks
Thicken the custard as they set during gentle cooking, giving it a smooth, rich body.
Cream
Adds fat and richness, making the custard silky and smooth on the palate.
Flour
Stabilises the custard so it thickens more reliably and resists curdling.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and caramelises under the salamander to form the brittle crust.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the yolks thicken, carrying the bay and cinnamon flavour.

The step that matters

Cook over low heat until thickened. Egg yolks set at moderate temperatures, and high heat or boiling can scramble them and make the custard grainy. Gentle heat and constant stirring keep it smooth.

Swap the cinnamon

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

  1. Nutmegfits about as well
  2. Cinnamonthe original
  3. Jalapenofits less well
  4. Turmericfits less well

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