Why it works: Milk and corn are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,955 recipes. Both carry hexanal, which smells green, grassy. The science ↓
Orange Custard
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Make the custard
Boil the milk.
Mix the corn starch, eggs, and 4 tablespoons of sugar together.
Stir the mixture into the boiling milk.
Assemble and bake
Slice the oranges lengthwise and sprinkle sugar over them.
Pour the custard over the oranges.
Whip the egg whites to a stiff froth.
Add a little sugar to the whipped egg whites.
Spread the whipped egg whites on top of the custard.
Bake at 400°F (200°C) until brown.
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 + corntop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,955 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
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Orange + corntop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together586 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
-
Orange + milktop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,696 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
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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).
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
- Eggs
- Thicken the custard when heated and, whipped, form the browned meringue topping.
- Corn starch
- Thickens the milk mixture into a smooth custard that holds its shape when cooled.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base of the custard that the eggs and starch set into.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the custard and oranges and helps the egg whites stay stable as meringue.
- Oranges
- Provide the fruit base and bright acidity that contrasts with the sweet custard.
The step that matters
Stir the mixture into the boiling milk. Adding the egg and starch mixture to boiling milk while stirring keeps the eggs from scrambling and lets the starch thicken evenly into a smooth custard. Adding it too slowly or without stirring can leave lumps or curdled bits.
Swap the orange
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, sugar, egg, corn):
- Vanillafits better
- Coconutfits better
- Figfits better
- Orangethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, sugar, egg, corn. 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.
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