Why it works: Milk and currant are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,475 recipes. Both carry isoamyl acetate, which smells banana, pear. The science ↓
Floating Island
Ingredients
Directions
Make the custard
Heat the milk in a saucepan until scalding, but not boiling.
Beat the egg yolks and mix in the sugar.
Gradually pour in 1 cup of the hot milk, mixing well.
Return the mixture to the saucepan and cook until it begins to thicken.
Once cool, add the flavoring and pour into a glass dish.
Make the meringue and serve
Whip the egg whites until stiff, then gradually beat in the currant jelly, 1 teaspoon at a time.
Heap the meringue on top of the cooled mixture.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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.
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Milk + curranttop 16% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together5,475 recipes
Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
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Milk + almondtop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,800 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Sugar + almondtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together15,679 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 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 milk mixture into a smooth custard as they cook.
- Egg whites
- Whipped to stiff foam, they form the light meringue that tops the custard.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base of the custard.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the custard and stabilizes the egg yolks.
- Currant jelly
- Sweetens and flavors the meringue while adding fruity tartness.
The step that matters
Return the mixture to the saucepan and cook until it begins to thicken. Egg yolks thicken from gentle heat; if the custard boils or overheats, the yolks can scramble and curdle, so cook slowly and stir constantly.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, egg, sugar, almond):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Raisinfits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, egg, sugar, almond. 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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