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Sauce

A German Custard Pudding-sauce

A sauce made by gently boiling milk with lemon rind, cinnamon, vanilla, sugar, then whisking into beaten eggs and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Eliza Acton · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 88,785 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

A German Custard Pudding-sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Flavor the milk

  1. Boil very gently together half a pint of new milk or of milk and cream mixed, a very thin strip or two of fresh lemon rind, a bit of cinnamon, half an inch of a vanilla bean, and an ounce and a half or two ounces of sugar, until the milk is strongly flavored.

Thicken the sauce

  1. Then strain, and pour it by slow degrees to the well-beaten yolks of three eggs, smoothly mixed with a knife-end-full (about half a teaspoonful) of flour, a grain or two of salt, and a tablespoonful of cold milk; stir these very quickly round as the milk is added.

  2. Put the sauce again into the stewpan, and whisk or stir it rapidly until it thickens and looks creamy.

  3. It must not be placed upon the fire, but should be held over it when this is done.

Finish

  1. The Germans mill their sauces to a froth; but they may be whisked with almost equally good effect, though a small mill for the purpose, formed like a chocolate mill, may be had at a very trifling cost.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

276Calories
14 gProtein
13 gFat
25 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 3 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49

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

By Eliza Acton. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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

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

  2. Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

  3. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 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

Eggs
Yolks thicken the sauce as their proteins gently set with heat.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that carries the flavor and becomes the body of the custard.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the flavors of the infused milk.

The step that matters

Holding the sauce over, not on, the fire. Egg yolks thicken through gentle heat, but direct heat can overcook them so they curdle or scramble. Holding the pan over the heat and stirring rapidly lets the custard thicken evenly while staying smooth.

“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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