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Onion Custard Fob Gabnitube of Soups

A savoury custard made from onion puree, eggs and cream, baked in small moulds and turned out to garnish soups.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 13,015 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Onion Custard Fob Gabnitube of Soups

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.

Prepare the custard

  1. In an earthen bowl, combine the onion puree with the cream.

  2. Add the raw eggs and egg yolks.

  3. Season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg.

  4. Mix well and strain through a fine sieve.

Bake and serve

  1. Butter small fancy-shaped tartlet moulds.

  2. Fill the moulds with the mixture.

  3. Place the moulds in a pan of hot water, ensuring no water enters the moulds.

  4. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until set, but do not brown.

  5. Once cooked, turn out of the moulds.

  6. Let cool.

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. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Cream + nutmegtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,920 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set the custard into a firm, sliceable structure as they cook.
Egg yolks
Add richness and a smooth, creamy texture to the custard.
White onion puree
Provides the main flavour and bulk of the custard.
Cream
Adds fat and moisture, giving a softer, silkier custard.

The step that matters

Bake in a water bath without browning. Eggs set gently at moderate heat in a water bath. Too much heat or direct exposure makes the custard curdle, weep, or turn grainy, and browning spoils its smooth, pale appearance. Keep water out of the moulds so the custard stays silky.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, egg, pepper, nutmeg, butter):

  1. Spinachfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, egg, pepper, nutmeg, butter. 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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