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Dessert

Caramel Custard

A custard made with milk, sugar, eggs, corn starch, vanilla, and caramelized brown sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Caramel Custard

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 ↓

Caramel Custard

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard base

  1. Combine milk, white sugar, and salt in a kettle over medium heat. If unavailable, use a tin pail in a pot of hot water.

  2. Beat the eggs in a large bowl without separating them.

  3. Wet the corn starch with a little cold milk.

  4. Pour the scalding milk onto the beaten eggs.

Thicken and flavor

  1. Heat the brown sugar in a tin pan until it is thoroughly scorched but not burned.

  2. Return the mixture to the kettle over medium heat and stir in the corn starch until it thickens.

  3. Stir in the scorched sugar and remove from heat.

  4. Add vanilla and stir vigorously until the sugar dissolves.

Serve

  1. Pour into custard glasses and serve cold.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Corn + vanillatop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,943 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  4. Milk + corntop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,955 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

  5. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 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

Eggs
Beaten eggs provide protein that sets and gives the custard its body as it heats.
Corn starch
Starch thickens the hot milk mixture so the custard becomes smooth and spoonable.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the eggs and starch set into a creamy custard.
Brown sugar
Scorched into caramel, it adds deep, toasty flavor and color to the custard.

The step that matters

Stirring the corn starch into the custard. Starch thickens only when heated enough to swell its granules, and eggs can curdle if overheated. Keep heat moderate and stir constantly so the custard thickens smoothly rather than lumping or scrambling.

“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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