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 ↓
Floating Island
Ingredients
Directions
Make the custard
Bring the milk to a boil in a saucepan.
Stir in the beaten yolks of the eggs.
Flavor with your chosen extract and sweeten to taste.
Whip and assemble
Whip the egg whites until stiff peaks form.
Once the custard thickens, pour it into a deep dish.
Heap the whipped egg whites on top of the custard.
Serve
Serve cold.
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.
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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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Egg + sugartop 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 of the custard, providing body and creaminess once thickened.
- Egg yolks
- Proteins set as they warm, thickening the milk into a custard and adding richness.
- Egg whites
- Whipped into a foam whose air bubbles give the light, airy topping.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and balances the richness of the yolks and milk.
The step that matters
Whip the egg whites to stiff peaks. Egg white foam holds air only when fully whipped and free of yolk or grease. Under-whipped whites slump on the custard, and any fat residue prevents the foam from building.
“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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