Skip to main content
Dessert

Almond Custards

A custard made with almonds, cream, rose water, egg yolks, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓
Almond Custards

Why it works: Cream and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Almond Custards

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Blanch and finely grind the almonds.

  2. Combine the ground almonds with the cream and rose water.

  3. Sweeten to your taste.

Make the custard

  1. Beat the egg yolks until smooth and add to the mixture.

  2. Stir over low heat until thickened.

Cool and serve

  1. Pour into cups and let cool.

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

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

  2. Almond + rosetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,465 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Almond + creamtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,130 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

  4. Almond + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,679 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  5. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 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

Almonds
Provide the main body and nutty flavour, with fat that gives the custard a rich mouthfeel.
Cream
Adds richness and moisture, giving the custard a smooth, silky texture.
Egg yolks
Thicken the mixture as their proteins set when gently heated.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard to the cook's taste.
Rose water
Adds a floral aroma to the custard.

The step that matters

Stir over low heat until thickened.. Egg yolk proteins set gradually as they warm. High heat or lack of stirring can overcook them, causing the custard to curdle or turn grainy instead of smooth.

Swap the almond

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

  1. Almondthe original
  2. Pistachiofits about as well
  3. Walnutfits less well
  4. Chestnutfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, rose, egg, 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.

More almond custard recipes

Cake 6Pudding 6 See all 141 →

You might also like

Almond Sponge CakeAlmond Sponge Cake26 recipesAlmond WafersAlmond Wafers22 recipesCoconut Almond CakeCoconut Almond Cake17 recipesAlmond Paste TartletsAlmond Paste Tartlets10 recipes