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Custard in Cups

A custard made by boiling milk with sugar, flavoring, and eggs, then simmering until thickened.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and cinnamon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,655 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Custard in Cups

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard base

  1. Boil the milk in an enamelled saucepan with the sugar and your chosen flavoring.

  2. Let the milk steep by the side of the fire until well flavored.

  3. Bring the milk to a boiling point.

  4. Strain the milk into a basin.

  5. Once the milk has cooled slightly, stir in the eggs.

Cook and finish

  1. Whisk the eggs in a bowl.

  2. Strain the mixture into a jug.

  3. Place the jug in a saucepan of boiling water.

  4. Stir the custard continuously until it thickens, ensuring it does not boil to avoid curdling.

  5. Remove the custard from heat.

  6. Stir in the brandy if desired.

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 + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Cinnamon + sugartop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Cinnamon + brandytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,199 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  4. Milk + brandytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,738 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  5. Egg + brandytop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,340 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetoin (butter, cream).

Cinnamon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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 sets into the custard when heated gently.
Eggs
Coagulate on gentle heating to thicken and set the custard.
White sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the flavor of the milk and eggs.
Cinnamon or vanilla essence
Provides the chosen aroma, infused into the milk as it steeps.

The step that matters

Stirring the custard over boiling water. Egg proteins set gradually as they warm. If the custard gets too hot or boils, the eggs scramble and curdle, so it should be stirred constantly and kept below boiling until it thickens.

“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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