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Royale Custard for Consomme a LA Royale

A custard made with egg yolks, mace, paprika, salt, and cream or consommé, poached until firm and cut into shapes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Mace and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,009 recipes. The science ↓

Royale Custard for Consomme a LA Royale

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Beat the egg yolks and whole egg until well mixed.

  2. Add the mace, paprika, salt, and cream or consommé.

  3. Strain the mixture into a buttered mold, making it nearly half an inch thick.

Poach and serve

  1. Poach in hot water in the oven or on the stove until firm.

  2. Once cold, unmold and cut into squares, diamonds, or other shapes.

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. Mace + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,009 recipes
  2. Egg + creamtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together42,166 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  3. Egg + macetop 35% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,587 recipes

Egg and cream barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 42,166 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

Egg yolks
Provide richness and set the custard firm when gently heated.
Whole egg
Adds structure so the custard sets into a sliceable block.
Cream or consommé
Supplies liquid and fat that keep the custard tender rather than rubbery.

The step that matters

Poach in hot water until firm. Egg proteins set at gentle heat; if the water boils or the oven runs too hot, the custard becomes grainy, bubbled and weeping instead of smooth and firm.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. White pepperfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, 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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