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Dessert

Custard

A chilled custard made with milk, eggs, corn starch, sugar, vanilla, whipped cream, and candied fruits, frozen in an ice cream maker.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Custard

Why it works: Vanilla and pineapple match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 911 recipes. Both carry ethyl isobutyrate, which smells fruity, ethereal. The science ↓

Custard

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. In a large pot, combine milk, eggs, corn starch, sugar, salt, and vanilla.

  2. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until thickened.

  3. Remove from heat and let the custard cool.

Finish and freeze

  1. Once cooled, fold in whipped cream and the fruits.

  2. Freeze the mixture in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions.

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. Vanilla + pineappletop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together911 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  2. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  3. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

  4. Corn + vanillatop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,943 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  5. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

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

Eggs
Egg proteins thicken the custard as they heat, giving the base body.
Corn starch
Starch swells when heated with liquid, thickening the custard further.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard and adds richness and creaminess.
Whipped cream
Adds fat and air, making the frozen ice cream lighter and smoother.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and lowers the freezing point, keeping the ice cream softer.

The step that matters

Cooking the custard until thickened. Stirring constantly over medium heat keeps the eggs from scrambling and lets the starch thicken evenly. Undercooking leaves the base thin and runny, while overheating can curdle it.

Swap the pineapple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, egg, corn, sugar, vanilla, cream):

  1. Coconutfits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Strawberryfits better
  4. Pineapplethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, egg, corn, sugar, vanilla, cream. 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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