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Dessert

Plain Custards

A simple custard made with milk, eggs, sugar, peach kernels or leaves, and nutmeg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and peach work together. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 781 recipes. Both carry phellandrene, which smells minty. The science ↓

Plain Custards

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard base

  1. Boil the peach leaves or kernels in the milk.

  2. Set aside to cool.

  3. Once cold, strain out the leaves or kernels.

  4. Stir in the sugar.

  5. Beat the eggs until very light.

  6. Gradually stir the eggs into the cold milk.

Bake and finish

  1. Bake in cups or a large white dish.

  2. When cool, grate nutmeg over the top.

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 + peachtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together781 recipes

    Shared aroma: phellandrene (minty).

  2. Peach + nutmegtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together342 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Milk + nutmegtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,685 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Egg + nutmegtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together24,744 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Sugar + peachtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,308 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Egg and nutmeg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 24,744 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
Set the custard into a tender structure as they cook, and thicken the milk.
Rich milk
Forms the liquid base, providing moisture and a creamy texture.
Powdered sugar
Adds sweetness and dissolves smoothly into the cold milk.
Peach-kernels
Infused into the milk to add a subtle almond-like aroma, then strained out.

The step that matters

Gradually stir the eggs into the cold milk. Adding beaten eggs slowly, while stirring, spreads them evenly and keeps them from scrambling or clumping. Cold milk gives the eggs time to blend before heat sets the custard.

Swap the peach

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, egg, sugar, nutmeg):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Peachthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, egg, sugar, nutmeg. 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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