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Dessert

Coffee Custard

A custard made by mixing coffee, eggs, water, cream, and sugar, then baking in a water bath.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Coffee Custard

Why it works: Cream and sugar 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 ↓

Coffee Custard

Ingredients

Directions

Make the coffee

  1. Mix the coffee and egg in a bowl.

  2. Pour the mixture into a coffee pot with boiling water and boil for 5 minutes.

  3. Add cold water and let it sit for 10 minutes.

  4. Strain the coffee mixture into a saucepan.

Make the custard

  1. Add cream and bring to a boil.

  2. Gradually pour the hot coffee and cream mixture over the beaten eggs while stirring continuously.

  3. Transfer the custard to a pitcher.

  4. Place the pitcher in boiling water and stir constantly until it thickens.

Serve

  1. Serve in cups and chill before eating.

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. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  2. Coffee + creamtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,339 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

  3. Coffee + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,344 recipes

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

  4. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

  5. Egg + creamtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together42,166 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Egg and cream 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

Eggs
Coagulate as they cook, thickening the custard into a set, creamy texture.
Cream
Adds fat for a rich, smooth mouthfeel and softens the coffee's bitterness.
Fresh ground coffee
Provides the main coffee flavor and aroma of the custard.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the bitterness of the coffee.

The step that matters

Adding the hot mixture to the eggs. Pouring hot liquid into beaten eggs too quickly can scramble them. Adding it gradually while stirring gently raises the temperature evenly so the eggs thicken smoothly.

“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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