Why it works: Milk and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 88,785 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Floating Island
Ingredients
Directions
Make the custard
Combine scalding milk, egg yolks, cornstarch, sugar, and milk in a pot; stir until boiling hot.
Pour the mixture into a dish and let it cool.
Make and serve the islands
Beat the egg whites until stiff, then add powdered sugar.
Drop spoonfuls of the egg white mixture into boiling milk and cook briefly.
Drain the cooked egg whites on a platter and place them on top of the cooled custard.
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 + 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).
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Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- Egg yolks
- Thicken the custard and add richness and a golden color.
- Egg whites
- Whip into stiff foam that cooks into the soft floating islands.
- Cornstarch
- Thickens the custard so it sets smooth rather than runny.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the custard and helps stabilize the whipped egg whites.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base of the custard.
The step that matters
Cooking the egg white spoonfuls in boiling milk. Egg whites turn rubbery if cooked too long or at too vigorous a boil. Poaching them briefly in gently simmering milk sets the outside while keeping the inside soft and light.
“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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