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 ↓
Custard Filling
Ingredients
Directions
In a small bowl, combine the egg yolks, sugar, cornstarch, and flavoring. Stir until smooth.
Heat the milk in a saucepan until it boils.
Add the egg mixture to the boiling milk and stir continuously until thickened.
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.
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Egg + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- Egg yolks
- Add richness and help thicken the custard as they set with heat.
- Cornstarch
- Thickens the milk into a smooth, stable custard when heated.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base that thickens into the custard.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and softens the custard's flavour.
The step that matters
Stirring the egg mixture into the boiling milk. Stir continuously so the egg yolks and starch disperse evenly and do not clump or scramble. Cornstarch needs to reach a boil to reach full thickening power, and the constant stirring keeps heat even, giving a smooth custard.
“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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