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Dessert

English Custard

A custard made by simmering milk with bay leaves and lemon peel, then adding sugar and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,053 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

English Custard

Ingredients

Directions

Infuse the milk

  1. Pour the milk into a saucepan.

  2. Add bay leaves and lemon peel.

  3. Set aside by the fire for about 20 minutes.

  4. When on the point of boiling, strain into a basin to cool.

Make the custard

  1. Stir in the powdered sugar and beaten eggs.

  2. Strain again into a jug.

  3. Place the jug into a deep saucepan of boiling water.

  4. Put it on the fire and stir until it thickens.

Serve

  1. Pour into a glass dish or custard cups.

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. Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,053 recipes

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

  2. Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

  3. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Lemon + eggtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

Lemon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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

Milk
Forms the liquid base that carries the flavour and sets into the custard.
Eggs
Thicken the custard as their proteins set with gentle heat.
Powdered sugar
Adds sweetness and dissolves smoothly into the warm milk.
Lemon peel
Adds a bright citrus aroma infused into the milk.

The step that matters

Thicken the custard gently over water. Egg proteins set as the custard heats, but too much heat makes them tighten and curdle. Standing the jug in simmering water and stirring constantly keeps the temperature gentle and the texture smooth.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, sugar, egg):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits about as well
  3. Raisinfits about as well
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, sugar, egg. 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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