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Custards, Creams, Etc

A custard made from milk, sugar, eggs, flour, and butter, folded with beaten egg whites and served with creamy sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Custards, Creams, Etc

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the custard base

  1. Bring the milk to a boil.

  2. Beat the flour and butter together in a bowl.

  3. Gradually add the boiling milk to the flour and butter, cooking for 8 minutes while stirring often.

  4. Beat the sugar and egg yolks together in another bowl.

  5. Combine the cooked mixture with the egg yolk mixture.

  6. Let the mixture cool.

Bake and serve

  1. Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks.

  2. Fold the beaten egg whites into the mixture.

  3. Pour the mixture into a buttered pudding dish.

  4. Bake for 20 minutes at 350°F (175°C).

  5. Serve immediately with creamy sauce.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Sugar + saucetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,147 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
Egg yolks thicken the custard and whites, whipped and folded in, give it a light, airy lift.
Flour
Cooked with butter and milk, it thickens the base into a smooth, stable custard.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard, which thickens as it cooks with the flour.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps soften the set custard texture.
Butter
Adds richness and flavor, and is cooked with the flour to form the thickening base.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Whites beaten to stiff peaks trap air that gives the bake its lift. Stirring them in roughly or deflating them during folding loses that air, leaving a denser result. Fold gently until just combined.

“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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