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Dessert

Floating Island

A custard base topped with whipped egg whites and sweet toppings, chilled in an ice bath.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Floating Island

Why it works: Milk and cocoa work together. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 643 recipes. Both carry methyl 2-methylbutyrate, which smells fruity, apple. The science ↓

Floating Island

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Beat and strain the yolks of 6 eggs.

  2. Mix the strained yolks with 1 quart of milk, a small pinch of salt, and sugar to taste.

  3. Place the custard in a large tin pan and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until it boils.

  4. Remove from heat and flavor with lemon or rose.

Top and serve

  1. Pour the custard into a shallow dish.

  2. Spread the well-beaten egg whites over the hot custard.

  3. Sprinkle grated loaf sugar and grated cocoa-nut over the egg whites if desired.

  4. Set the dish in a pan of ice water.

  5. Serve cold.

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 + cocoatop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together643 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  2. Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,053 recipes

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

  3. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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 milk into a smooth custard as they set when heated.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard, providing moisture and richness.
Egg whites
Whip into a foam that floats on top of the custard, giving a light texture.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and adds body to the dish.

The step that matters

Cooking the custard until it boils. Egg yolks thicken as they heat, but overheating or scrambling can curdle the custard, so stir constantly over medium heat.

Swap the cocoa

The recipe marks cocoa as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, milk, sugar, lemon):

  1. Milletfits better
  2. Almondfits better
  3. Pistachiofits better
  4. Cocoathe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, milk, sugar, lemon. 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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