Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
Floating Island
Ingredients
Directions
Make the custard
Beat and strain the yolks of the eggs before adding the milk.
Combine the yolks, milk, salt, and sugar in a double boiler.
Stir constantly until the mixture boils, then remove from heat.
Flavor the custard with lemon, rose, or vanilla and pour into a shallow dish.
Top and serve
Beat the egg whites with a little sugar until well-beaten.
Spread the beaten whites over the hot custard and set aside to chill.
Optionally, serve in glasses topped with whipped cream or frothed egg whites and a lump 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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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,053 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together29,399 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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 thicken the custard and whites form the light meringue topping.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base of the custard, which thickens as the egg proteins set.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the custard and helps the whipped egg whites hold their structure.
The step that matters
Stir constantly until the mixture boils, then remove from heat. Egg yolks can curdle or scramble if overheated, so constant stirring over gentle heat keeps the custard smooth while it thickens. Removing it promptly stops the cooking before the proteins tighten too far.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, milk, sugar, cream):
- Vanillafits better
- Strawberryfits better
- Raspberryfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, milk, sugar, cream. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“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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