Name: Plain Custards
Ingredients: ten drops of oil of lemon; two quarts of green gooseberries; three ounces of shelled bitter almonds; six ounces of white sugar; three spoonfuls of white wine; a quart of milk; a large stick of cinnamon broken up; a handful of peach-kernels; a pound of sugar; a quart of milk you must have twelve yolks of eggs; a quart of cold milk; a bunch of peach leaves; a handful of broken up peach-kernels; a handful of broken cinnamon; a piece of preserved quince; a piece of fruit jelly; a quart of rich milk; a pound of shelled sweet almonds; a pound of loaf-sugar in a quart of cream; a quart of cream; a pound of grated cocoa-nut allow a pint of unskimmed milk; a pint of unskimmed milk; a pound of powdered white sugar; a pint of cream; a pint of rich milk; a pound of chocolate; a pint of boiling water; a pint of milk; a small bunch of peach leaves; a handful of broken bitter almonds

Why it works: Almond and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,514 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

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.

Almond + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,514 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Almond + peachtop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together466 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Cinnamon + peachtop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together625 recipes

Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).
Lemon + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together7,950 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,655 recipes

Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs: Beaten eggs set the custard as they cook, giving it a firm, tender body.
Milk: Forms the liquid base of the custard, carrying the flavour and setting with the eggs.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and helps give the baked custard a smooth, tender texture.
Cinnamon: Infused into the milk to add warm aroma to the custard.

The step that matters

Bake in a water bath. Surrounding the cups with boiling water gently heats the custard so the eggs set evenly. Too much heat makes the eggs curdle and turn grainy, so the custard should be removed once just set.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (almond, sugar, white wine, milk, cinnamon, peach, egg):

Vanillafits better
Figfits better
Apricotfits better
Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against almond, sugar, white wine, milk, cinnamon, peach, 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.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Chocolate	1 oz (28g) semisweet	155
Milk	1 cup (244ml) whole	149
Olive Oil	1 tbsp (14g)	119
Egg	1 large egg (50g)	78
Peach	1 medium (150g)	59
Cream	1 tbsp (15ml) heavy	51
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Wine	2 tbsp cooking wine (30ml)	25
Lemon	juice of 1 lemon (48ml)	12
Nutmeg	1 tsp ground (2.2g)	12
Almond	1 almond (1.2g)	7
Cinnamon	1 tsp ground (2.6g)	6
Quince	not in our table	0
Fruit	not in our table	0
Water	not in our table	0
Rose	not in our table	0
Mace	not in our table	0

Plain Custards

Plain Custards

Ingredients

Directions

Flavour the milk

Make the custard

Bake and serve

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)