Why it works: Egg and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 88,785 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Custards
Ingredients
Directions
In a saucepan, combine the egg and milk.
Whisk until well blended.
Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens and coats the back of a spoon.
Remove from heat and let cool before serving.
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.
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Egg + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 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
- Egg
- Thickens the milk as it cooks, setting into a smooth, pourable custard.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base that the egg proteins gently set into custard.
The step that matters
Cooking over low heat while stirring constantly. Egg proteins set at moderate temperatures, so high heat or stopping to stir can curdle the custard into lumps. Gentle, constant stirring lets it thicken evenly until it coats a spoon.
“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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