Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
Caramel Custard
Ingredients
Directions
Make the caramel cream
Melt the sugar in a saucepan over medium heat until it browns and begins to smoke.
Gradually add the melted sugar to the heated cream while stirring constantly.
Finish and steam
Once cool, mix in the well-beaten egg yolks.
Strain the mixture into custard cups or a baking dish.
Steam for 10 minutes.
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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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Cream + eggtop 24% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together42,166 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Cream and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 42,166 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
- Sugar
- Caramelizes to add deep color, bittersweet flavor, and sweetness.
- Cream
- Adds fat that makes the custard rich and tender.
- Egg yolks
- Coagulate as they heat, setting the custard into a smooth, firm texture.
The step that matters
Adding the caramel to the cream. Hot caramel poured into cream can seize into hard lumps or splatter. Adding it gradually while stirring constantly lets the sugar disperse evenly and keeps the cream 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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