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Steamed Custard

A light custard made by steaming a beaten egg and milk mixture.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Egg and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 88,785 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Steamed Custard

Ingredients

Directions

Mix the custard

  1. Beat the egg lightly in a bowl.

  2. Mix in the milk.

  3. If desired, add sugar for sweetness or a pinch of salt for flavor.

Steam and set

  1. Butter a cup and pour in the mixture.

  2. Steam in boiling water until set, being careful not to overcook to avoid curdling.

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. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

  2. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

  3. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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

Egg
Its proteins set when heated, giving the custard its firm, sliceable structure.
Milk
Adds liquid and dilutes the egg, keeping the set custard soft and tender rather than rubbery.

The step that matters

Steam until just set. Egg proteins coagulate as they heat, forming the custard. If heated too long or too hot, they tighten too much, squeezing out water and causing curdling, a grainy texture and weeping.

“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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