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Dessert

Almond Custard

A custard made from bitter almonds, cinnamon, lemon peel, sugar, milk or cream, egg yolks, sweet almonds, and rose water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,514 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Almond Custard

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. Grind the bitter almonds with a little cinnamon and the grated lemon peel.

  2. Combine with the lump sugar and milk or cream in a saucepan.

  3. Simmer for 15 minutes.

  4. Strain and let cool.

Make the custard

  1. Mix the cooled milk with the beaten egg yolks.

  2. Simmer again until thickened into custard.

  3. Blend in the smooth sweet almonds mixed with rose water.

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. Almond + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,514 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Cinnamon + lemontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Cinnamon + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Almond + lemontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

Egg yolks
Thicken the custard as they set on gentle heat and add richness.
Milk or cream
Provides the liquid base and moisture that the yolks thicken into custard.
Lump sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the almond and lemon flavours.
Sweet almonds
Add nutty flavour and body to the finished custard.
Bitter almonds
Contribute a strong, characteristic almond aroma and flavour.

The step that matters

Simmering the custard after adding the egg yolks. Egg yolk proteins thicken the mixture as it heats, but too much heat or boiling can curdle it into grainy lumps. Keep the heat gentle and stir constantly until it coats a spoon.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

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