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Dessert

Royale Custard to Serve with Consomme

A custard made with egg yolks, egg, salt, pepper, and beef stock, baked until firm and served with consommé.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and beef are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,971 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Royale Custard to Serve with Consomme

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the custard

  1. Beat the eggs slightly until well mixed.

  2. Add the salt, pepper, and beef stock.

Bake the custard

  1. Pour the mixture into a dish to about 1 inch thick.

  2. Set the dish in a pan of hot water and place it in a 350°F (175°C) oven until firm. Do not let it brown on top.

Cut and serve

  1. Once cold, cut into cubes or fancy shapes.

  2. Carefully place the pieces in the tureen after adding the soup.

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. Pepper + beeftop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Egg + beeftop 31% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Egg + peppertop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together50,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Egg and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 50,580 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
Proteins set as they heat, giving the custard its firm, sliceable structure.
Beef stock
Adds liquid and savoury flavour, keeping the custard moist and seasoned.

The step that matters

Bake gently in a water bath without browning. Egg proteins set at moderate heat. Too much heat makes the custard tough, grainy, and weepy, and browning on top shows it has overcooked.

“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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