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Dessert

Creams and Custards

A custard made by boiling milk, whisking egg yolks with sugar and salt, and cooking until thickened.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,685 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Creams and Custards

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the custard base

  1. Add your choice of flavoring to the milk before boiling.

  2. Bring the milk to a boil.

  3. In a bowl, beat the egg yolks with the sugar and salt.

  4. Gradually pour the boiling milk over the egg mixture, beating continuously.

  5. Strain the mixture to remove any lumps.

Cook the custard

  1. For baking, pour the custard into earthen cups, set in a pan of hot water, and bake at 350°F (175°C).

  2. For steaming, cook over boiling water for 15 minutes.

  3. For boiled custard, stir in a double boiler until thickened, about 5-6 minutes.

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 + nutmegtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,685 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Egg + nutmegtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together24,744 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  3. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

  4. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

  5. Sugar + nutmegtop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together23,364 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

Egg and nutmeg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 24,744 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

Milk
Forms the liquid base that sets into a creamy custard.
Egg yolks
Proteins set during gentle cooking, thickening the custard and giving it richness.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and helps keep it smooth and tender.

The step that matters

Gradually pour the boiling milk over the egg mixture, beating continuously. Adding hot milk too quickly can scramble the egg yolks. Pouring slowly while beating gently raises their temperature evenly so they thicken smoothly instead of curdling.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, sugar, egg):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegthe original
  3. Gingerfits less well
  4. Allspicefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, sugar, egg. 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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