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 ↓
Caramel Custard
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the mold
Prepare a plain tin pudding mold.
In a small saucepan, stir ½ cup sugar until it becomes brown like coffee.
Pour the caramel into the mold, coating the bottom.
Butter the sides of the mold.
Make the custard
Beat the eggs and sugar together until well mixed.
Add the milk and lemon essence to the egg mixture.
Pour the mixture into the prepared mold and cover with buttered paper.
Steam and serve
In a stewpan, add 1 inch of boiling water and place a saucer at the bottom.
Set the pudding mold on the saucer and cover the pan with a lid.
Steam slowly for at least 1 hour without boiling.
Turn out and serve hot or cold.
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 + lemontop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,053 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + lemontop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together44,316 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
Sugar and lemon 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
- Eggs
- Set the custard as they cook, giving it structure and a firm, sliceable texture.
- Milk
- Provides the liquid base and moisture that the eggs set into a smooth custard.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the custard and, when heated alone, forms the brown caramel that coats the mold.
The step that matters
Steam slowly without boiling. Boiling water or fierce heat makes the egg proteins set too fast, causing a rough, holey or curdled custard. Gentle steam cooks it evenly.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, milk):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits about as well
- Raisinfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, milk. 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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