Why it works: Egg and milk 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 ↓
Floating Island
Ingredients
Directions
Make the custard
Beat the egg yolks until light.
Mix in sugar, cornstarch, and flavoring.
Stir the mixture into the boiling milk and cook until thickened.
Finish and serve
Once cool, pour the custard into a low glass dish.
Whip the egg whites to stiff peaks and spoon them onto the custard, leaving space between each.
Garnish each island with small drops of bright jelly.
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.
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Egg + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- Egg yolks
- Thicken the custard and add richness and colour when cooked.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the custard and helps balance the flavour of the milk.
- Cornstarch
- Thickens the milk mixture as it cooks, giving the custard body.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base of the custard, which sets as it cooks and cools.
- Egg whites
- Whipped to stiff peaks, they form the light, airy islands floating on the custard.
The step that matters
Cooking the custard until thickened. Cornstarch and egg yolks thicken the milk only when it reaches a simmer and is stirred. Undercooking leaves a thin custard that will not hold its shape, while overheating can curdle the yolks.
“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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