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 ↓
Baked Custard
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Make the custard
Scald the milk in a saucepan.
Beat the eggs thoroughly in a bowl.
Add the sugar to the beaten eggs and mix well.
Stir the egg mixture into the hot milk.
Strain the mixture into cups or a baking dish.
Bake and serve
Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) until set.
Let cool, then pour into cups and add flavoring if desired.
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.
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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + sugartop 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).
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 sets into a soft, creamy custard.
- Eggs
- Coagulate when heated, giving the custard its set structure and body.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the custard and adds flavor to the set custard.
The step that matters
Bake in a slow oven until set. Egg proteins set at moderate heat and can curdle or turn grainy if overheated. Baking gently in a slow oven keeps the custard smooth and tender.
“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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