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 ↓
Boiled Custard
Ingredients
Directions
Make the custard
Heat the milk and sugar in a double boiler until boiling.
Slowly stir in the beaten eggs and cornstarch mixed with cold milk.
Add your desired flavoring and stir well.
Cool
Once the mixture is thickened, pour it into a dish to cool.
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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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).
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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base that the eggs and starch thicken into a smooth custard.
- Eggs
- Their proteins set when heated, thickening the custard and giving it body.
- Cornstarch
- Swells in hot liquid to thicken the custard and help keep it smooth.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness to the custard.
The step that matters
Stirring in the eggs and cornstarch. Egg proteins set when heated, so adding the beaten eggs too quickly or without constant stirring can cause small lumps or curdling. Adding them slowly while stirring, with the cornstarch mixture, lets the custard thicken evenly and stay smooth.
“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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