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 ↓
Sweet Custard
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C) if baking.
Beat the eggs in a bowl.
Add the milk, flavoring, and sugar to the eggs and mix well.
Bake or steam and serve
Pour the mixture into a greased pie dish, basin, or small jars.
Bake in the oven or steam until set.
Serve the baked custard hot or cold, and the steamed custard 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.
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
- Coagulate as they heat, giving the custard its set structure.
- Milk
- Provides the liquid base and moisture that gives the custard its smooth, soft texture.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and balances the richness of the eggs and milk.
- Flavoring
- Adds aroma and taste to the custard.
The step that matters
Bake or steam until set. Egg proteins set as the custard heats, and overheating makes them tighten and curdle, leaving a grainy, watery texture. Stop cooking once the custard is just set, since it firms further as it cools.
“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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