Name: Apple Cup Custard
Ingredients: one tablespoon of butter; four tablespoons of sugar; half pint of milk; four good sized; four eggs; four eggs until stiff; four table- spoons of sugar

Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Apple Cup Custard

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

Pare, core, and steam four good-sized tart apples until tender; press through a sieve.
While hot, add one tablespoon of butter, four tablespoons of sugar, the yolks of four eggs, and one-half pint of milk.
Turn the mixture into baking cups and bake for twenty minutes.

Top and serve

Beat the whites of four eggs until stiff.
Add four tablespoons of sugar to the beaten whites, beat, and heap over the top of the cups.
Dust thickly with powdered sugar and brown in the oven.
Serve cold.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

378Calories

14 gProtein

25 gFat

25 gCarbs

What these numbers assume: 4 portions

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Milk	1 cup (244ml) whole	149
Butter	1 tbsp (14g)	102
Egg	1 large egg (50g)	78
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49

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

By Mackay, L. Gertrude. [from old catalog]. 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.

Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118,967 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together98,233 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together88,785 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

Sugar and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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

Tart apples (in the method): Provide the main fruit body and tangy flavor for the custard base.
Eggs: Yolks thicken the custard, and whites beaten stiff form the light topping.
Milk: Adds moisture and richness, helping the apple mixture set into a soft custard.
Sugar: Sweetens the custard and, dissolved into the whites, helps the topping hold its shape.
Butter: Adds fat for richness and a smoother, more tender custard texture.

The step that matters

Beat the whites until stiff. Whites must be beaten until they hold firm peaks so the topping stays airy; underbeaten whites collapse and make the topping dense rather than light.

“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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Apple Cup Custard