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Dessert

Creme Renverse Au Caramel

A caramelized custard baked in a water bath, served upside down.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Vanilla and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Creme Renverse Au Caramel

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the molds

  1. Boil the sugar until it turns golden, then add a little water and reduce to soft ball stage.

  2. Pour a thin layer of hot syrup into the bottom of timbale molds and let cool.

  3. Rub the sides of the molds with melted butter or olive oil.

Make and bake the custard

  1. Prepare the custard flavored with vanilla and fill the molds.

  2. Bake the custard in a water bath at 350°F (175°C) until done.

  3. Remove from water and let cool.

Serve

  1. To serve, loosen the custard from the sides and turn upside down onto a serving dish.

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. Vanilla + milktop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Butter + vanillatop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,050 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Eggs
Set the custard into a firm, sliceable structure as they cook.
Milk
Provides the liquid base and moisture that gives the custard its soft texture.
Granulated sugar
Melts into the caramel that coats the molds and sweetens the custard.
Cornstarch
Thickens the custard so it holds its shape when unmolded.

The step that matters

Cooking the sugar to a golden caramel. Sugar can burn quickly once it turns golden, giving a bitter taste, or crystallize if disturbed. Watching the colour closely gives a clean, amber caramel that releases well from the molds.

“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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