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Dessert

Iced Custard with Fruit

A chilled custard made with eggs, milk, sugar, vanilla, and fruit, served in a macaron mould.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Hodgson, Mary, fl. 1855 · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,053 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Iced Custard with Fruit

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mould

  1. Line the sides and bottom of a round mould with macaroons, fastened together with hot sugar; when cool, place it on a dish.

Make the custard

  1. Make a custard with the yolk of ten eggs, one quart of milk, half a pound of sugar, and a vanilla bean.

  2. Freeze the custard.

  3. Fill the macaroon mould with the custard.

  4. Form the custard in a pyramid shape.

  5. Ornament with strawberries, cherries, or any fruit in season.

Bake the apples and rice

  1. Pare and core a dozen apples.

  2. Place the apples in a pan with a little butter, loaf sugar, and lemon peel.

  3. Add a little water, and bake the apples slowly, without allowing them to become brown.

  4. Boil some rice with milk, sugar, a little butter, and a nutmeg.

  5. When the rice is perfectly done, mash it with a spoon, and put it into a round mould to cool.

  6. Turn the cooled rice out of the mould, and arrange the apples neatly upon it.

Serve

  1. Eat the dish with wine sauce.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

288Calories
15 gProtein
13 gFat
29 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 4 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Hodgson, Mary, fl. 1855. 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. See the original page.

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. Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  2. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Egg + lemontop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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
Egg yolks thicken and set the custard as it cooks, giving it body.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard and the rice, adding richness and creaminess.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and apples, and hot sugar acts as the glue that holds the macaroons together.
Rice (in the method)
Boiled until soft and then mashed, it forms a firm base that holds its shape under the apples.
Apples (in the method)
Slow baking softens them and concentrates their sweetness while they hold their shape.

The step that matters

Bake the apples slowly without browning. Slow, gentle heat softens the apples evenly and keeps them pale. Higher heat browns the sugars and dries the surface, changing the flavour and texture.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits about as well
  3. Raisinfits about as well
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, sugar, egg. 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.

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