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Dessert

Gelatine Custard

A custard dessert made with gelatin, milk, sugar, eggs, and lemon juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,053 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Gelatine Custard

Ingredients

Directions

Make the gelatin

  1. Dissolve gelatin in boiling water.

  2. Add lemon juice and sugar.

  3. Strain into a dish and cool.

  4. Cut the gelatin into small squares.

Make the custard

  1. In a saucepan, combine milk, egg yolks, and sugar.

  2. Cook until thickened.

  3. Cool and flavor.

Make the meringue and serve

  1. Beat egg whites until stiff.

  2. Gradually add powdered sugar.

  3. Pour the custard over the gelatin when ready to serve.

  4. Spoon over the custard 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.

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. Lemon + milktop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,053 recipes

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

  2. Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

  5. Lemon + eggtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

Lemon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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

Gelatine
Sets the liquid into a firm, tender dessert that holds its shape.
Egg yolks
Thicken the milk into a smooth custard as they cook.
Egg whites
Whip into a stiff foam that gives the topping its light, airy texture.
Milk
Forms the body of the custard, giving it richness and creaminess.
Sugar
Sweetens the gelatin, custard and topping.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the sweetness of the gelatin.

The step that matters

Cook the custard until thickened. Egg yolks thicken as their proteins set with gentle heat. Overheating can curdle the custard, so cook slowly and stir until it coats a spoon.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits about as well
  3. Raisinfits about as well
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, milk, egg. 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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