Skip to main content
Dessert

Cheese Custards

A baked custard made with eggs, milk, Parmesan cheese, and spices, steamed in small molds.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Cheese Custards

eighteen small molds

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Beat the eggs in a small saucepan.

  2. Add the milk, white pepper, grated nutmeg, and salt.

  3. Heat on low, stirring until it begins to thicken.

  4. Remove from heat and stir in the grated Parmesan cheese.

Fill and steam

  1. Brush eighteen small molds with melted butter.

  2. Fill the molds with the custard.

  3. Place the molds in a stew-pan with boiling water at the bottom.

  4. Cover with a round of buttered paper and steam until firm.

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 + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Parmesan cheese + buttertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,163 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. White pepper + nutmegtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,375 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Milk + parmesan cheesetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,608 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  5. Milk + nutmegtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,685 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set the custard into a firm, sliceable structure as they cook.
Milk
Provides the liquid base that thickens gently with the eggs into a smooth custard.
Parmesan cheese
Adds savoury, salty flavour and fat, and its proteins help firm the custard as it sets.

The step that matters

Heat on low, stirring until it begins to thicken. Egg proteins set at moderate temperatures, so high heat or no stirring can scramble the eggs and leave lumps. Gentle heat with constant stirring keeps the custard smooth.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, milk, nutmeg, parmesan cheese, butter):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Clovefits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, milk, nutmeg, parmesan cheese, butter. 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.

You might also like

Cheese BallsCheese Balls97 recipesCheese CakeCheese Cake55 recipesCream CheeseCream Cheese46 recipesLemon PieLemon Pie37 recipes