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Raspberry Custard

A custard made with milk, sugar, corn starch, eggs, and raspberry syrup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and syrup match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,842 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Raspberry Custard

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Combine milk and sugar in a saucepan, then set it over a pot of boiling water.

  2. Mix corn starch with a little cold milk, then stir until it boils for 2 minutes.

  3. Beat yolks with a spoonful of cold milk, then stir into the mixture, cooking until thickened but not boiling.

  4. Remove from heat, stir in raspberry syrup.

Finish and serve

  1. Beat egg whites with 1 tablespoon sugar until stiff, then fold into the mixture.

  2. Pour into custard cups and serve warm or cold.

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. Sugar + syruptop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Milk + corntop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,955 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

  3. Milk + raspberrytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,014 recipes

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

  4. Corn + raspberrytop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together86 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).

  5. Corn + syruptop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,678 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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 beaten stiff lighten its texture.
Corn starch
Starch thickens the milk as it heats and boils, giving the custard body.
Rich sweet milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard and gives it richness.
Raspberry syrup
Adds raspberry flavour and sweetness to the custard.

The step that matters

Cooking the yolks until thickened but not boiling. Egg yolks thicken as they heat, but if they boil they can curdle and turn grainy. Stirring gently and stopping at thickness keeps the custard smooth.

Swap the raspberry

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Coconutfits better
  4. Raspberrythe original

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