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Dessert

Caeamel Custard

A sweet custard made with milk, sugar, eggs, corn starch, and vanilla, thickened and cooled.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Caeamel Custard

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard base

  1. Combine milk, white sugar, and salt in a kettle over medium heat.

  2. If a kettle is unavailable, use a tin pail in a pot of hot water.

  3. Beat the eggs in a large bowl without separating them.

  4. Wet the corn starch with a little cold milk.

  5. Heat the brown sugar in a tin pan until it is thoroughly scorched but not burned.

  6. Pour the scalding milk onto the beaten eggs.

  7. Return the mixture to the kettle over medium heat.

  8. Stir in the corn starch until it thickens.

Finish and serve

  1. Stir in the scorched sugar.

  2. Remove the mixture from heat.

  3. Add the vanilla.

  4. Stir vigorously until the sugar dissolves.

  5. Pour the custard into glasses.

  6. Serve cold.

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. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

  3. Corn + vanillatop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,943 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

  5. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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 that sets when cooled.
Eggs
Set the custard into a firm, sliceable texture as they cook with the milk.
Corn starch
Thickens the custard so it holds its shape and body.
Brown sugar
Scorched to add a deep, caramel flavour and colour.
White sugar
Adds sweetness to the milk base.

The step that matters

Stir in the corn starch until it thickens. Starch thickens only when heated enough to swell its granules, and it can clump or scorch if left unstirred over heat. Keep stirring steadily while the custard thickens so it stays 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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