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Custard Cream

A custard made from egg yolks, milk, sugar, gelatin, and flavoring, chilled until set.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Custard Cream

Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Custard Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Beat the yolks of the eggs and mix with sugar in a bowl.

  2. Pour the boiling milk or cream over the egg mixture and stir well.

  3. Transfer the mixture to a saucepan and cook over gentle heat, stirring until thickened.

  4. Remove from heat and add flavoring of your choice.

  5. Allow to cool, stirring occasionally.

Add the gelatine and set

  1. Soak the gelatin in cold water.

  2. Dissolve the gelatin in the boiling milk.

  3. Stir the dissolved gelatin into the cooled custard.

  4. Pour the mixture into a mold and refrigerate overnight.

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.

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.

  1. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  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. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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 yolks
Thicken the custard as they cook and add richness and colour.
Milk or cream
Provides the liquid base and fat that give the custard its smooth, creamy texture.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the richness of the yolks and dairy.
Gelatine
Sets the custard so it holds its shape when chilled in a mold.

The step that matters

Cooking the custard over gentle heat. Egg yolks thicken through gentle heating; if the heat is too high they can scramble into lumps. Stirring constantly keeps the custard smooth and evenly thickened.

“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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