Skip to main content
Dessert

Almond Custard

A custard made with blanched almonds, milk, eggs, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Almond and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,800 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Almond Custard

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the almonds

  1. Blanch the almonds by pouring boiling water over them in a deep dish, then cover and let them sit for 1 hour.

  2. Remove the almonds from the hot water and place them in cold water, then rub off the skins.

  3. Finely grind the blanched almonds.

Make the custard

  1. Add the ground almonds to a saucepan with the milk, heat until boiling, and sweeten to taste.

  2. In a bowl, beat the eggs and strain them.

  3. Gradually pour the hot milk and almond mixture over the eggs while stirring continuously.

  4. Return the mixture to the heat and cook in a pitcher until thickened.

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. Almond + milktop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,800 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Almond + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,679 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  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. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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

Almonds
Provide the nutty flavour and body of the custard once ground and blanched.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the eggs thicken into a custard.
Eggs
Set and thicken the milk mixture as they gently cook through heat.

The step that matters

Adding the hot milk to the eggs. Pouring hot liquid into eggs too quickly can scramble them. Adding it gradually while stirring gently raises the egg temperature so the custard thickens smoothly.

Swap the almond

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, egg, sugar):

  1. Pecansfits about as well
  2. Almondthe original
  3. Cocoafits about as well
  4. Walnutfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, egg, sugar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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.

More almond custard recipes

Cake 6Pudding 6 See all 141 →

You might also like

Almond Sponge CakeAlmond Sponge Cake26 recipesAlmond WafersAlmond Wafers22 recipesCoconut Almond CakeCoconut Almond Cake17 recipesAlmond Paste TartletsAlmond Paste Tartlets10 recipes