Skip to main content
Dessert

Hard Custard

A custard made from milk, eggs, sugar, vanilla, lemon, brandy, and salt, topped with meringue.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Sterrett, Laura C · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

Hard Custard

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard base

  1. Beat 5 eggs well, reserving 1 quart milk.

  2. Beat 3 egg whites with 5 tablespoons sugar.

  3. Add 2 teaspoons vanilla and a pinch of salt.

  4. Put mixture in a pudding dish.

Bake and top

  1. Place dish in a pan of water in the oven and bake.

  2. When nearly baked, add a meringue made with the three whites and 2 tablespoons brown sugar to each white, and any flavoring.

  3. Bake until light brown.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. Beat two yolks of eight eggs until white.

  2. Add a pint of boiling water, the rinds of two lemons grated, and the juice sweetened to taste.

  3. Stir over the fire until it thickens.

  4. Add a large glass of rich wine and half a glass of brandy.

  5. Give the whole a good boil.

  6. Put in glasses.

  7. Serve cold.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

300Calories
15 gProtein
13 gFat
30 gCarbs

Counts 6 of 7 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 6 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Vanilla1 tsp extract (4ml)12
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Brandynot in our table0

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

By Sterrett, Laura C. 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 + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

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

  2. Tea + lemontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together610 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

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

  4. Tea + vanillatop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together170 recipes

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

  5. Milk + teatop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together738 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

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 and form the light meringue topping when beaten.
Milk
Provides the liquid base that bakes into a soft, creamy custard.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and meringue and helps the meringue hold its structure.
Lemons
Add aromatic citrus oil from the rind and acidity from the juice.
Brandy
Adds a warming aroma and flavour to the sauce.

The step that matters

Bake until light brown. Baking the meringue too long or too hot can make it weep or turn bitter, while too little time leaves it pale and soft. Watch its colour closely.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Peachfits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Apricotfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

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

You might also like

Lemon CakeLemon Cake228 recipesLemon IceLemon Ice147 recipesVanilla Ice CreamVanilla Ice Cream108 recipesLemon SherbetLemon Sherbet103 recipes