Why it works: Milk and vanilla 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 ↓
Floating Island
Ingredients
Directions
Make the custard
In a saucepan, add 2 tablespoons of corn starch to 1 quart of simmering milk.
Stir in the yolks of 4 eggs and 4 tablespoons of sugar.
Boil for 3 minutes, then remove from heat and let cool.
Once cool, add 1 teaspoon of vanilla and pour into a dish.
Top with meringue
Whip the 4 egg whites into a meringue and drop over the mixture.
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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Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,187 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
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Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together35,032 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Corn + vanillatop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,943 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
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Corn + milktop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,955 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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
- Corn starch
- Thickens the milk into a custard as it heats and cools.
- Egg yolks
- Enrich and thicken the custard, adding richness and body.
- Egg whites
- Whip into a foam that forms the light, floating meringue topping.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the custard and helps stabilise the meringue.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base of the custard.
The step that matters
Whip the egg whites into a meringue. Egg whites must be whipped to stiff, glossy peaks to trap air and hold their shape. Under-whipped or greasy whites will collapse or weep when dropped onto the warm custard.
“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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