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 ↓
Floating Island
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Scald the milk in a saucepan.
Separate the eggs.
Beat the egg whites until very stiff.
Add 2 teaspoons of sugar to the egg whites and beat slightly.
Poach the meringue
Scrape the mixture onto the hot milk.
Cook for 5 minutes or until firm.
Remove the egg whites.
Make the custard
Mix salt, sugar, and cornstarch together.
Add the mixture to the egg yolks and beat slightly.
Pour the hot milk slowly onto the beaten yolks.
Transfer the mixture to a double boiler.
Stir until it thickens.
Finish and serve
When nearly cool, stir in the flavoring.
Place the egg whites on top.
Serve cold as a pudding, optionally garnished with specks of jelly.
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.
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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
- Eggs
- Whites form a stiff foam for the topping, while yolks enrich and thicken the custard.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base of the custard and gently cooks the egg whites.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps stabilize the beaten egg whites.
- Cornstarch
- Thickens the custard as it heats, giving it a smooth body.
The step that matters
Pouring the hot milk slowly onto the beaten yolks. Adding hot liquid gradually raises the yolks' temperature slowly, so they thicken smoothly instead of scrambling into lumps.
“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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