Why it works: Cinnamon and almond match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,514 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓
White Custard
Ingredients
Directions
Boil 2 pints of milk with cinnamon and a few bitter almonds.
Blanch and beat a few sweet almonds with rose water to form a paste.
Add the almond paste to the milk mixture.
Thicken the custard with flour or arrow-root mixed with water or milk.
Sweeten and flavor the custard to your taste.
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.
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Cinnamon + almondtop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together3,514 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Almond + flourtop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,673 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Cinnamon + flourtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,341 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,655 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
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Cinnamon + sugartop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together30,779 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Cinnamon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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 of the custard, which sets as it thickens.
- Sweet almonds
- Provide body and nutty flavor when beaten into a paste and added to the milk.
- Flour or arrow-root
- Thickens the custard by swelling with liquid and forming a smooth, set texture.
- Bitter almonds
- Add a concentrated almond aroma when simmered in the milk.
The step that matters
Thicken the custard with flour or arrow-root mixed with water or milk. Starch must be mixed smoothly into a cool liquid before adding to the hot milk, because dry starch clumps. Starch granules swell and gelatinize as the custard heats, which is what thickens it.
“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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