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Custard Sauce

A thickened milk custard flavored with vanilla, made by cooking egg yolks, sugar, and milk.

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

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 ↓

Custard Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Beat the egg yolks slightly, then add sugar and salt.

  2. Gradually stir in the hot milk while constantly mixing.

  3. Cook in a double boiler, stirring continually until thickened and a coating forms on the spoon.

Finish and rescue

  1. Chill and add vanilla extract.

  2. If the custard curdles, beat it with a Dover egg beater to restore smoothness.

  3. For fewer eggs, use 2 yolks and ½ tablespoon cornstarch.

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

Egg yolks
Thicken the custard as they set with gentle heat, giving it body and richness.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the egg yolks thicken into a smooth sauce.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the richness of the egg yolks and milk.

The step that matters

Cook in a double boiler, stirring continually. Egg proteins set at moderate heat, and too much heat or uneven heating makes them scramble and curdle. Gentle, constant stirring in a double boiler keeps the custard smooth and lets it thicken evenly.

“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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