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Creams and Custards

A custard made with eggs, sugar, milk, salt, and optional gelatin, baked until firm.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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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 ↓

Creams and Custards

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare

  1. Beat the eggs separately, whisking the yolks and whites until fluffy, adding the whites last.

  2. If using gelatine, soak it in a small amount of milk or cold water for at least an hour.

Make the custard

  1. Heat the milk in a double boiler until boiling, then remove from heat and stir in the dissolved gelatine.

  2. Combine the egg mixture with the milk, adding sugar and salt, and mix well.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the custard into a baking dish or cups set in a pan of hot water.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until the center is firm.

  3. If desired, top with whipped egg whites while hot.

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

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

  2. Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

  3. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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
Their proteins set when heated, giving the custard its firm, sliceable structure.
Milk
Forms the liquid base, providing moisture and a soft, creamy texture.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and contributes to a tender texture in the set custard.
Gelatine
Adds extra setting power, giving a firmer, more molded custard when used.

The step that matters

Bake until the center is just firm. Egg proteins set with gentle heat. Overbaking tightens them too far, squeezing out liquid and leaving the custard grainy, watery, or curdled.

“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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