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Dessert

Custard

Custard is a sweet, thickened milk and egg mixture flavored with sugar and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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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 ↓

Custard

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the custard base

  1. Heat the milk in a saucepan.

  2. In a bowl, beat the egg.

  3. Gradually stir the hot milk into the beaten egg.

  4. Pour the mixture into a small jug.

Cook the custard

  1. Place the jug in a saucepan of fast-boiling water.

  2. Stir continuously until the mixture thickens and coats the spoon.

  3. Remove from heat and continue stirring until well thickened.

Cool and serve

  1. Cool the custard by placing the jug in cold water.

  2. Serve the custard with stewed fruit.

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. Sugar + eggtop 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

Milk
Forms the liquid base, giving the custard its creamy body and moisture.
Egg
Its proteins set on gentle heat, thickening the liquid into a custard.
Sugar
Adds sweetness to balance the richness of the milk and egg.

The step that matters

Stirring over the heat. Egg proteins set as they warm, and if the mixture gets too hot or is not stirred, the egg can scramble and curdle instead of forming a smooth, thick custard. Constant stirring spreads the heat evenly and keeps the texture silky.

“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.

More custard recipes

Pie 313Baked 278Boiled 257Pudding 209Chocolate 198Lemon 178 See all 206 →

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