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Cheese Custard

A baked custard made with eggs, milk, grated cheddar cheese, and optional mustard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Cheddar cheese and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,964 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Cheese Custard

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderately hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderately hot oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the custard

  1. Heat the milk and cheese in a saucepan until the cheese is melted.

  2. Let the mixture cool slightly, then pour it over the beaten eggs.

  3. Season to taste and pour into a baking dish.

Bake

  1. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until set.

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. Cheddar cheese + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,964 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Cheddar cheese + mustardtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together708 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Milk + mustardtop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,658 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Egg + cheddar cheesetop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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 firm, sliceable texture as they cook.
Grated cheddar cheese
Provides rich flavour and fat, and melts into the milk to form the custard base.
Milk
Provides liquid that gives the custard a soft, creamy texture when set.

The step that matters

Let the mixture cool slightly before adding the eggs. If the hot cheese milk is poured straight onto beaten eggs, the eggs can scramble and turn grainy instead of forming a smooth custard. Cooling it slightly lowers the temperature so the eggs thicken gently.

Swap the mustard

The recipe marks mustard as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, cheddar cheese, milk):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, cheddar cheese, milk. 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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