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Dessert

Cold Custard

A chilled custard made with milk, cream, sugar, wine, rennet, and nutmeg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Cold Custard

Why it works: Cream and sugar 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 ↓

Cold Custard

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Mix the milk, cream, and sugar in a bowl.

  2. Soak the rennet in the white wine, then stir it into the milk mixture.

  3. Pour the mixture into custard cups.

  4. Place the cups in a warm area until they form a firm curd.

Chill and serve

  1. Chill the cups in the refrigerator and grate nutmeg over them before serving.

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. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  2. Cream + nutmegtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,920 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  3. Milk + nutmegtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,685 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Cream + white winetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,760 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

  5. Milk + white winetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together929 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Whole milk
Provides the main liquid and body for the custard to set into.
Heavy cream
Adds fat, richness and a smoother, softer texture to the set custard.
Powdered white sugar
Sweetens the custard and dissolves easily into the cold milk mixture.
Washed rennet
Enzyme that causes the milk to coagulate into a firm curd.

The step that matters

Place the cups in a warm area until they form a firm curd. Rennet only sets milk within a suitable temperature range, so the curd may stay loose if the area is too cold or the enzyme is not evenly mixed in first.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, cream, sugar, white wine):

  1. Cinnamonfits about as well
  2. Nutmegthe original
  3. Peppermintfits less well
  4. Gingerfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, cream, sugar, white wine. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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