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Dessert

Maple Custard

A custard made with milk, eggs, cornstarch, brown sugar, and served with whipped cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Maple Custard

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Beat the egg yolks separately from the whites.

  2. Combine the milk and egg yolks in a double boiler.

  3. Cook until thickened.

  4. Melt the brown sugar.

  5. Stir it into the hot custard.

  6. Allow the custard to cool.

Finish and serve

  1. Fold in the beaten egg whites.

  2. Serve with whipped cream.

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. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  2. Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

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

  4. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

  5. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

Milk and sugar 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

Milk
Forms the liquid base that the eggs and cornstarch thicken into custard.
Eggs
Egg yolks thicken the custard as they set, and beaten whites lighten it when folded in.
Cornstarch
Thickens the custard by swelling in the hot liquid, giving a smoother set.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and caramel-like flavor that defines the maple custard.

The step that matters

Cook until thickened. Egg proteins set gently over moderate heat. A double boiler keeps the temperature low, so the custard thickens smoothly instead of curdling 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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