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Dessert

Caramel Custard

A baked custard made with eggs, milk, sugar, and vanilla, topped with caramel.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Caramel Custard

Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Caramel Custard

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the custard

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Beat the yolks and whites of the eggs separately until very light.

  3. Bring the milk to a boil, then gradually add it to the beaten eggs, stirring well.

  4. Add 1 tablespoon of sugar to the egg and milk mixture.

Make the caramel

  1. In a round deep pan, melt 5 tablespoons of light brown sugar over low heat, stirring until soft.

  2. Once melted, set the pan in a larger pan half full of hot water.

Bake and serve

  1. Flavor the custard mixture and strain it into the pan with melted sugar.

  2. Bake in the oven until firm, or until a knife inserted comes out clean.

  3. Remove from the oven and let cool.

  4. To serve, run a knife around the edge and carefully turn it out onto a dish.

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. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Eggs
Yolks and whites set the custard into a firm, sliceable structure as it bakes.
Milk
Provides the liquid base that the egg proteins set into a smooth, tender custard.
Light brown sugar
Melts into the caramel that coats the pan and becomes the sauce on the unmolded custard.

The step that matters

Baking until just set. Egg proteins set with heat, so overbaking can turn the custard grainy, spongy or watery. Removing it once firm and a knife comes out clean keeps it smooth.

“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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