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Sauce

Boiled Custard Sauce

A simple custard sauce made by whisking eggs, sugar, and cornstarch with heated milk until thickened.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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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 ↓

Boiled Custard Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. In a saucepan, beat together the eggs, sugar, and cornstarch.

  2. In a separate pot, heat the milk until it begins to boil.

  3. Pour the hot milk over the egg mixture and stir well.

  4. Return the mixture to the heat and cook until it thickens.

Finish and serve

  1. Pour into a pitcher and flavor if desired.

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. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

  2. Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

  3. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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

Eggs
Provide proteins that thicken the custard as they gently set with heat.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that gives the sauce its body and creamy moisture.
Cornstarch
Thickens the sauce by swelling with heat, adding body and stability alongside the eggs.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps balance the richness of the eggs and milk.

The step that matters

Returning the mixture to the heat. Egg proteins set around 170°F and can scramble if overheated, while cornstarch needs to reach a simmer to thicken fully. Cooking gently while stirring keeps the sauce 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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