Skip to main content
Dessert

Cheese Custard H LA Royale

A custard made with milk, eggs, cream, spices, and Parmesan cheese, baked in a water bath.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: White pepper and mace are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,695 recipes. Both carry myrcene, which smells balsamic, herbaceous. The science ↓

Cheese Custard H LA Royale

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the custard

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a bowl, combine milk, eggs, cream, salt, white pepper, and mace.

  3. Strain the mixture through a fine sieve.

  4. Stir in the grated Parmesan cheese.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a greased mold.

  2. Poach in a water bath until set.

  3. Let it cool before turning out for garnishing.

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. White pepper + macetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,695 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  2. Milk + parmesan cheesetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,608 recipes

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

  3. Cream + parmesan cheesetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,566 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

  4. Milk + macetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,346 recipes

    Shared aroma: sabinene (woody, terpenic).

  5. Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

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

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 texture as they cook.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the eggs set into a tender custard.
Cream
Adds fat for a smoother, richer mouthfeel in the custard.
Parmesan cheese
Adds savory, salty flavor and a little nutty depth to the custard.

The step that matters

Poach in a water bath until set. Eggs set gently at moderate heat; too much heat makes the custard curdle, weep, or turn grainy and porous. A water bath keeps the temperature even and gentle.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, egg, cream, mace, parmesan cheese):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cinnamonfits better
  3. Celeryfits about as well
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, egg, cream, mace, parmesan cheese. 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.

You might also like

Cheese BallsCheese Balls97 recipesCheese CakeCheese Cake55 recipesCream CheeseCream Cheese46 recipesLemon PieLemon Pie37 recipes