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Dessert

Floating Islands

A custard base topped with meringue islands, flavored with spice or salt and a flavoring.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and egg 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 Islands

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Scald the milk in a saucepan.

  2. Separate the eggs into yolks and whites.

  3. Mix salt, sugar, and cornstarch in a bowl.

Make the custard and whites

  1. Add the mixture to the yolks and beat slightly.

  2. Beat the egg whites until very stiff, then add 2 tablespoons of sugar and beat slightly.

  3. Spread the egg white mixture on top of the hot milk.

  4. Let it cook for 2 to 3 minutes until firm, then lift it out onto a plate.

  5. Pour the hot milk over the beaten yolks.

  6. Transfer this mixture to a double boiler and stir until it thickens.

Finish and serve

  1. When nearly cool, stir in the flavoring, place the cooked whites on top, and serve cold as a pudding.

  2. For a decorative touch, add specks of jelly on the whites.

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

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

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

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

  3. 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 thickens into the custard when combined with the yolks.
Eggs
Yolks thicken the custard while the whites set into the floating islands.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and helps stabilize the beaten egg whites.

The step that matters

Thickening the custard in the double boiler. Egg yolk proteins set at moderate heat, so too much heat can curdle the custard into grainy lumps. Keep the heat gentle and stir steadily until it thickens.

“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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