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Dessert

Burnt Cream

A custard made from milk, egg yolks, cream, and flour, browned on top with sugar.

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 1 pint of milk with 1 bay leaf and 1 piece of cinnamon.

  2. Beat 4 egg yolks in a bowl.

  3. Mix in ½ pint of cream and 1 tablespoon of flour.

  4. Gradually add the milk mixture to the egg mixture.

  5. Stir constantly.

  6. Cook over low heat until thickened like custard.

Finish and brown

  1. Pour into a dish.

  2. Sprinkle with sugar.

  3. 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 rich, smooth body.
Cream
Adds fat and richness, giving the custard a smooth, velvety texture.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the yolks set into a custard.
Flour
Stabilises the custard so it thickens without curdling as it heats.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and forms the caramel crust when browned on top.

The step that matters

Cook over low heat until thickened like custard. Egg yolks set at gentle temperatures. High heat or lack of constant stirring can scramble the yolks and curdle the custard, so keep the heat low and stir throughout.

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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