Why it works: Egg and milk 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 ↓
Caramel Custard
Ingredients
Directions
Make the caramel
Place 1 teaspoon of sugar in the bottom of a plain tin mold and heat it on the stove until the sugar browns.
Shake the mold gently to distribute the sugar evenly.
Once browned, remove the mold from the heat and let the caramel cool.
Make the custard
In a bowl, beat together 6 eggs, ½ cup of sugar, and 1 pint of milk until well combined.
Pour the custard mixture into the mold.
Steam and serve
Set the mold in a saucepan with boiling water, ensuring the water reaches halfway up the sides of the mold.
Steam the custard until it is firm.
Once firm, you can serve it hot or let it cool completely before serving cold.
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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Egg + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar and milk 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
- Coagulate when heated, giving the custard its firm, sliceable structure.
- Milk
- Provides the liquid base and moisture that the set eggs hold within the custard.
- Sugar
- Melts and browns into caramel on the mold, and sweetens the custard.
The step that matters
Steam the custard until it is firm. Steam heats the custard gently and evenly. Too much heat or boiling too hard can make egg proteins tighten quickly, producing a curdled or rubbery texture with holes.
“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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