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Dessert

Rich Custard

A creamy custard made with cream, egg yolks, sugar, brandy, peach water, lemon brandy, and almond paste.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Rich Custard

Why it works: Peach and almond match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 466 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Rich Custard

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. In a large bowl, mix the cream and powdered sugar.

  2. Beat the egg yolks well and combine with the cream mixture.

  3. Place the mixture in a tin pail and scald it in boiling water, stirring until thickened.

Flavour and set

  1. Once cool, add the brandy, peach water, lemon brandy, and almond paste.

  2. Pour the custard into cups and refrigerate until set.

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. Peach + almondtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  3. Lemon + almondtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Peach + lemontop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together947 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Brandy + peachtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together339 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Thicken the custard as they set during gentle scalding, giving it a rich, smooth body.
Cream
Provides fat and richness, giving the custard a smooth, soft texture.
Powdered white sugar
Adds sweetness and dissolves easily into the cream for a smooth texture.
Blanched almonds
Contribute fat and nutty flavour, and body from the ground almond paste.

The step that matters

Scalding until thickened. Egg yolks thicken through gentle heat, but if the mixture gets too hot or is not stirred constantly, the proteins can curdle and leave a grainy texture. Stir steadily and remove it once it coats a spoon.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, egg, sugar, brandy, peach, almond):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Apricotfits better
  3. Raspberryfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, egg, sugar, brandy, peach, almond. 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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