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Dessert

Cheese Custards

A baked custard made with cheese, eggs, milk, butter, corn starch, salt, pepper, and baking soda.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Cheese Custards

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Beat the eggs until very light.

Make the custard

  1. Heat the milk with a pinch of baking soda and stir in the corn-starch until thickened.

  2. While still warm, add salt, pepper, butter, and cheese to the egg mixture.

  3. Beat well and pour into greased custard cups.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake for about 15 minutes, or until high and brown.

  2. Serve immediately as a separate course, with bread and butter.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

  3. Cheese + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,426 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

  5. Corn + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,324 recipes

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set the custard and give it structure as they cook, while whipping adds air for height.
Cheese
Adds rich flavour and fat, and helps the custard brown in the oven.
Milk
Provides the liquid base that gives the custard its moisture and body.
Corn-starch
Thickens the warm milk so the mixture holds together before baking.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth, tender texture.

The step that matters

Adding the cheese and butter while still warm. Fat and cheese added to the egg mixture while it is still warm melt and blend smoothly; cooling first can leave the butter in lumps and the mixture uneven. Beating well then keeps the custard evenly textured before it bakes.

“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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