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Dessert

French Custard

A custard made with eggs, milk, corn starch, and sugar, cooked gently.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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French Custard

Why it works: Milk and corn are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,955 recipes. Both carry hexanal, which smells green, grassy. The science ↓

French Custard

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Dissolve the corn starch in a little milk.

  2. Beat the yolks and sugar together in a bowl.

  3. Beat the egg whites separately until stiff.

  4. Warm the milk before adding the egg mixture.

Make the custard

  1. Stir the beaten egg whites into the yolk mixture.

  2. Cook in a tin pail placed in a kettle of warm water or a double boiler.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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 + corntop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,955 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

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

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

  3. Egg + corntop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,484 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Yolks thicken the custard as they heat, and beaten whites add lightness and structure.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the eggs set into a smooth, tender custard.
Corn starch
Thickens the milk as it heats, giving the custard a firmer body.

The step that matters

Cook in a tin pail over warm water or a double boiler. Gentle, indirect heat lets the egg proteins set slowly into a smooth custard. Too much heat can curdle the eggs and leave the custard grainy.

“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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