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Dessert

Nettie's Dessert

A custard dessert made from egg whites, yolks, milk, sugar, cornstarch, vanilla, topped with jelly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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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 ↓

Nettie's Dessert

Ingredients

Directions

Make the white layer

  1. Dissolve the cornstarch in boiling water.

  2. Stir the dissolved cornstarch into the boiling water.

  3. Add the beaten egg whites and remove from heat to cool.

Make the custard and assemble

  1. In a separate pot, combine milk, sugar, salt, cornstarch, and egg yolks.

  2. Flavor with vanilla and remove from heat to cool.

  3. Pour the yellow mixture into the white part and drop jelly on top.

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.

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

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

  3. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

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

Cornstarch
Thickens the liquid as it heats, giving the white layer and custard their set.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard, adding body and creaminess.
Egg yolks
Enrich the custard and help it thicken and turn rich and smooth.
Egg whites
Beaten stiff, they add lightness and an airy, foamy texture to the white layer.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and balances the flavor of the milk and eggs.

The step that matters

Keep the yolk custard stirred as it heats. Cornstarch thickens as it heats, and egg yolks can curdle or form lumps if heated unevenly. Constant stirring keeps the custard smooth and evenly thickened.

“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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