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Fried Cheese Custards

A custard made with milk, eggs, cheese, corn flour, and breadcrumbs, steamed then fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Fried Cheese Custards

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the custard

  1. Bring the milk to a boil.

  2. Whisk the eggs with the corn flour and grated cheese.

  3. Stir the egg mixture into the boiling milk. Add the breadcrumbs and cayenne, then stir until thick and creamy.

  4. Pour the mixture into well-buttered dariole cups. Cover the cups with greased paper.

  5. Steam or bake in a water bath at 350°F (175°C) for about 30 minutes until firm.

  6. Let the custards cool.

Coat and fry

  1. Cut the custards in half.

  2. Dust the custards with flour.

  3. Brush the custards with beaten egg.

  4. Roll the custards in breadcrumbs.

  5. Fry the custards in boiling butter suet until golden brown.

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 + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Milk + cheesetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,426 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

  5. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
Set the custard as they cook, giving it a firm, sliceable structure.
Grated dry cheese
Adds rich savoury flavour and fat, and helps thicken the custard.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the eggs and cheese set into a custard.
Soft white breadcrumbs
Thicken the mixture and add body to the custard.
Corn flour
Thickens the custard so it holds its shape when cut and coated.

The step that matters

Fry the custards in boiling butter suet until golden brown. The custards must be fully chilled and firm before frying. Hot fat browns the breadcrumb coating quickly, so a soft or warm centre can break apart or stay underdone.

“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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