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Dessert

Caramel Custards

A custard made with caramelized sugar and milk, baked in a water bath.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Egg and milk 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 ↓

Caramel Custards

Oven, in the book's wordsA cool oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a cool oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Scald the milk in a saucepan.

  2. Beat the eggs in a bowl.

Make the custard

  1. Pour the hot milk over the beaten eggs and mix well.

  2. Add the caramelized sugar and stir until combined.

  3. Pour the mixture into buttered custard cups.

Bake and serve

  1. Place the cups in a pan of hot water.

  2. Bake in a cool oven at 300°F (150°C) until firm.

  3. Serve with caramel sauce.

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. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  2. Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Sugar and milk 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
Set the custard into a firm, sliceable structure as they cook.
Caramelized sugar
Adds deep caramel sweetness and flavor to the custard.
Milk
Provides liquid that keeps the custard soft and tender.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps balance the eggs and milk.

The step that matters

Bake in a cool oven until firm. Eggs set gently at low heat. Too much heat makes the proteins tighten too far, so the custard curdles and weeps liquid. Bake only until the centre is just firm, since it keeps setting as it cools.

“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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