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Custard

A custard made with milk, sugar, lemon rind, eggs, brandy, and nutmeg.

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

Why it works: Lemon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,318 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Custard

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard base

  1. Heat the milk with sugar and lemon rind until well flavored.

  2. Bring to a boil, then strain into a bowl.

  3. Whisk the eggs and stir them into the cooled milk mixture.

Cook and serve

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

  2. Stir until thickened, avoiding boiling.

  3. Remove from heat.

  4. Stir in brandy.

  5. Pour into glasses.

  6. Grate nutmeg on top before serving.

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. Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

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

  2. Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,053 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Brandy + nutmegtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,311 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set the custard as they cook, thickening the liquid into a smooth, sliceable texture.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the eggs thicken into a creamy custard.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps balance the richness of the eggs and milk.
Brandy
Adds aroma and flavor when stirred in off the heat.

The step that matters

Stir until thickened, avoiding boiling. Egg proteins set gently as the custard heats. If it boils or overheats, the eggs can scramble and curdle, leaving a grainy texture that cannot be fixed by stirring.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, sugar, egg, brandy, nutmeg):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, sugar, egg, brandy, nutmeg. 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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