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 ↓
Boiled Custard
Ingredients
Directions
Make the custard
In a saucepan, combine the milk and sugar, adding any flavoring you prefer.
Heat the mixture over medium heat until it begins to boil.
Once boiling, slowly stir in the beaten eggs.
Continue to cook, stirring constantly, until the custard thickens.
Finish
Remove from heat and let cool before serving.
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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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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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 milk as they cook, setting the custard into a smooth, pourable body.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base that the eggs thicken into custard.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the custard and balances the flavor of the eggs and milk.
The step that matters
Slowly stir in the beaten eggs. Adding eggs to hot milk too quickly can scramble them. Pouring slowly while stirring spreads the heat so the eggs thicken the custard smoothly instead of curdling.
“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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