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Dessert

Strawberry Custard

A custard made with milk, egg yolks, sugar, topped with strawberries and beaten egg whites, baked briefly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and egg 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 ↓

Strawberry Custard

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the custard

  1. Combine milk, egg yolks, and sugar in a saucepan.

  2. Cook over medium heat until thickened, then set aside to cool.

Make the meringue

  1. Beat egg whites until stiff.

  2. Gradually add powdered sugar and continue beating until stiff and glossy.

Assemble and bake

  1. Place strawberries in a deep dish and pour custard over them.

  2. Spoon beaten egg whites on top and dust with sugar.

  3. Place in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for a moment to brown.

Serve

  1. Serve ice‑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. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

  2. Milk + sugartop 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).

Milk and sugar 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

Egg yolks
Thicken the custard as they set with gentle heat.
Egg whites
Whipped into foam, they form the light structure of the topping.
Powdered sugar
Dissolves easily into the whites, helping the meringue stay stiff and glossy.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard and gives it a soft, creamy texture.
Strawberries
Provide fruity flavor and moisture beneath the custard.

The step that matters

Cook the custard over medium heat until thickened. Egg yolks thicken as their proteins set with heat, but too much heat can curdle or scramble them. Cook gently and stir so the custard thickens smoothly.

“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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