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Dessert

Boiled Custards

A custard made by heating milk and cream with bay leaves, cinnamon, almonds, and eggs, then straining and cooling.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Boiled Custards

Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Boiled Custards

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard base

  1. In a saucepan, combine the milk, cream, bay leaves, and cinnamon. Bring to a boil.

  2. In another bowl, whisk together the eggs, egg yolks, pounded almonds, and sugar.

  3. Pour the boiling milk and cream mixture into the egg mixture and stir well.

  4. Strain the mixture through a fine sieve back into the saucepan.

Cook and serve

  1. Heat gently, stirring constantly with a whisk until it thickens, but do not let it boil.

  2. Remove from heat and continue stirring until nearly cold to prevent curdling.

  3. Pour into custard glasses and grate a little nutmeg on top before serving.

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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cinnamon + almondtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,514 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Almond + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,115 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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 gently with heat, giving it a smooth, rich body.
Eggs
Set during gentle heating to thicken the custard and add structure.
Cream
Adds fat and richness, giving the custard a smooth, velvety mouthfeel.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the eggs thicken into a pourable custard.
Sweet almonds
Contribute nutty flavour and body through the pounded almond paste.

The step that matters

Heat gently and do not let it boil. Egg proteins thicken the custard as it warms, but if it boils or overheats the eggs scramble and curdle. Stirring constantly and cooling while stirring keeps it smooth.

“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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