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Dessert

Soft Custard

Soft custard is a milk and egg yolk custard garnished with jelly and poached egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Soft Custard

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 ↓

Soft Custard

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Beat the egg yolks well and set aside.

  2. Scald half a cup of milk in a double boiler over heat.

  3. Stir the scalded milk into the egg yolks.

  4. Cook the mixture for 1 minute.

  5. Add the salt and sugar. Remove from heat.

Poach the egg whites

  1. Beat the egg whites until stiff.

  2. Bring 1 pint of milk to a boil in a separate pot.

  3. Spoon the egg whites into the boiling milk.

  4. Cook the poached egg whites for 1 minute on each side.

  5. Drain the poached egg whites.

Assemble and serve

  1. Place the poached egg whites on top of the custard.

  2. Garnish each piece of egg with a dot of jelly before serving.

  3. If serving in a platter, sprinkle the beaten egg whites mixed with sugar and vanilla on top.

  4. Brown the mixture in the oven.

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.

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.

  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. 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).

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

Egg yolks
Thicken the custard as they cook gently, giving it body and a smooth, rich texture.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard and the poaching liquid for the egg whites.
Egg whites
Whipped until stiff, they add airy lightness and hold their shape when poached.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and the topping, and helps the whipped whites stay stable.
Vanilla
Adds a warm aroma that rounds out the sweet custard flavour.

The step that matters

Cooking the custard over heat. Egg yolks thicken gently as they warm. If the mixture gets too hot or cooks too long, the proteins tighten and the custard can curdle or turn grainy, so keep the heat moderate and stir.

“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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