Why it works: Milk and egg 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 ↓
Custard Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Heat the milk in a saucepan until it boils.
In a bowl, beat the eggs and sugar together.
Stir the egg mixture into the hot milk.
Gently stir until the mixture thickens.
Remove from heat, add flavoring to taste, and serve hot.
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.
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Milk + eggtop 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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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
- Egg proteins set as the custard heats, thickening the sauce.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base and gives the sauce its creamy body.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and softens the flavor of the eggs and milk.
The step that matters
Gently stir until the mixture thickens. Egg proteins thicken the sauce only within a narrow temperature range. If the mixture gets too hot or is stirred too little, the eggs can curdle or scramble, leaving lumps. Keep the heat moderate and stir constantly until it coats a spoon.
“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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