Why it works: Milk and banana are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,470 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓
Boiled Custard
Ingredients
Directions
Make the custard
Whip the eggs while heating the milk until near boiling.
Add sugar to the milk and stir until dissolved.
Pour the milk mixture into the eggs, stirring continuously.
Return the mixture to a saucepan over boiling water and stir.
Remove from heat for a few seconds, then return to heat, repeating until thickened like cream.
Finish
Let the custard cool and cut the bananas into small pieces.
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.
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Milk + bananatop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,470 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
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Egg + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Sugar + bananatop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,102 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
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Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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
- Thicken the custard as they set gently with the heat, giving it body.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base that the eggs thicken into a smooth custard.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the custard taste rounded.
- Bananas
- Add fruit flavour and soft texture to the finished custard.
The step that matters
Returning the mixture to the heat in stages. Egg proteins set at around 160°F to 180°F and can scramble if the custard gets too hot too fast. Pausing off the heat and returning it gently lets the custard thicken smoothly without curdling.
Swap the banana
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, milk, sugar):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Raisinfits better
- Bananathe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, milk, sugar. 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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