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Royale Custard to Serve with Consomme

A thin custard made from egg yolks, salt, pepper, and beef stock, set in a water bath until firm, served with consommé.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 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.

Make the custard

  1. Beat the egg yolks until well mixed.

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

  3. Pour the mixture into a dish to a thickness of about 1 inch.

  4. Set the dish in a pan of hot water.

  5. Place it in a 350°F (175°C) oven until firm.

  6. 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

Egg yolks
Coagulate when heated, setting the liquid into a firm, tender custard.
Beef stock
Supplies the liquid that the egg yolks set, adding savory beef flavor.

The step that matters

Do not let it brown on top. Baking in a hot water bath keeps the custard gentle. Browning means the oven is too hot or the custard is cooked too long, which makes it grainy, rubbery, and split rather than smooth.

“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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