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Dessert

Caramel Custard Baked

A baked custard made with milk, sugar, eggs, vanilla, and caramelized sugar syrup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Caramel Custard Baked

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Heat the milk and chopped vanilla bean in a double boiler until boiling.

  2. Melt the sugar in a separate pan without water, stirring constantly until it turns a rich golden brown.

  3. Slowly stir half of the hot syrup into the boiling milk to prevent overflow.

  4. Cook until the sugar dissolves completely in the milk.

Make the custard

  1. Beat the eggs until very light, then pour the milk mixture over them.

  2. Add a pinch of salt and vanilla extract if not using the vanilla bean.

  3. Rinse a mold with cold water, then pour the custard mixture into it.

Bake and serve

  1. Place the mold in a pan of hot water and bake at 350°F (175°C) for 20–25 minutes.

  2. Test with a knife; if it comes out clean, the custard is done.

  3. Add boiling water to the remaining syrup and cook gently until thickened like cream.

  4. Flavor the syrup with vanilla and serve the custard very cold.

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 + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  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 + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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
Set the custard into a firm, sliceable structure as they cook.
Milk
Provides the moisture and creamy, tender body of the custard.
Granulated sugar
Sweetens the custard and forms the caramel syrup that coats the mold.
Vanilla bean
Adds the characteristic aroma of the custard.

The step that matters

Caramelizing the sugar to golden brown. Sugar darkens quickly from golden to bitter and burnt, so it must be stirred constantly and removed at the right colour. Burnt sugar ruins the syrup's flavour, and the custard's gentle baking in hot water keeps the eggs from curdling.

“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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