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Dessert

Very Good Old-fashioned Boiled Custard

A custard made by simmering milk with lemon rind, sugar, eggs, and optional brandy and almonds.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Eliza Acton · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,655 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Very Good Old-fashioned Boiled Custard

Ingredients

Directions

Infuse and heat the milk

  1. Throw the very thin rind of a fresh lemon into a pint and a half of new milk and let it infuse for half an hour.

  2. Simmer the milk and lemon rind together for a few minutes.

  3. Add four ounces and a half of white sugar to the mixture.

Make the custard

  1. Beat thoroughly the yolks of fourteen fresh eggs.

  2. Mix the beaten yolks with another half-pint of new milk.

  3. Stir the boiling milk quickly into the egg mixture.

  4. Take out the lemon peel.

  5. Turn the custard into a deep jug.

  6. Set the jug over the fire in a pan of boiling water.

  7. Keep the custard stirred gently, but without ceasing, until it begins to thicken.

  8. Move the spoon more quickly, keeping it touching the bottom of the jug, until the mixture reaches the point of boiling.

  9. Instantly take the jug from the fire to prevent curdling.

Finish and serve

  1. Pour the custard into a bowl and keep it stirred until nearly cold.

  2. Add a wineglassful of good brandy by degrees.

  3. Add two ounces of blanched almonds, cut into spikes, or omit them at pleasure.

  4. (Optional) Boil a few bitter bruised almonds in the milk instead of lemon peel if desired.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

19Calories
1 gProtein
1 gFat
4 gCarbs

Counts 2 of 3 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 2 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Almond1 almond (1.2g)7
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 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. Almond + lemontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Almond + brandytop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,969 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

  3. Brandy + lemontop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,351 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks (in the method)
Thicken the custard as they set with gentle heat, giving it body and richness.
Milk (in the method)
Forms the liquid base that the yolks thicken into a smooth custard.
Sugar (in the method)
Sweetens the custard and balances the richness of the yolks.
Brandy
Adds aroma and flavour to the finished custard.
Blanched almonds
Add flavour and a textural garnish to the custard.

The step that matters

Keep the custard below boiling until thickened. Egg yolks thicken through gentle heat, but overheating scrambles their proteins and curdles the custard. Stir constantly and remove the jug from the fire as soon as it reaches boiling.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (almond, brandy):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against almond, 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.

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