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Dessert

Caramel Custard

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

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

Prepare

  1. Heat milk and white sugar in a saucepan over medium heat.

  2. Beat eggs in a large bowl without separating them.

  3. Wet cornstarch with a little cold water.

  4. Heat brown sugar in a separate pan until scorched but not burned.

Make the custard

  1. Pour hot milk mixture over beaten eggs, then return to saucepan.

  2. Stir in cornstarch and cook until thickened.

  3. Add scorched sugar and remove from heat.

  4. Stir in vanilla extract until well combined.

Chill and serve

  1. Pour custard into glasses and refrigerate until cold.

  2. Serve with whipped cream.

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. Milk + eggtop 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. Sugar + eggtop 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
Proteins set as the custard heats, giving it a firm, sliceable structure.
Milk
Provides the liquid base and creamy richness of the custard.
White sugar
Sweetens the custard and dissolves into the milk.
Cornstarch
Thickens the custard as it cooks, giving a smooth, spoonable body.
Brown sugar
Scorched, it adds a toasted, bittersweet caramel flavour.
Vanilla extract
Adds a warm aroma and rounds out the custard's flavour.

The step that matters

Pour hot milk mixture over beaten eggs. Adding hot milk to eggs too quickly can scramble them. Pouring the hot milk in a slow, steady stream while whisking gradually raises the eggs' temperature, so they thicken smoothly into the custard instead of curdling.

“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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