Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Custard Pudding
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 the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a bowl, mix the flour with the cream or milk.
Make the custard
Add the well-beaten egg yolks, rose water, brandy, and fresh butter.
Sweeten with pounded loaf sugar and add a little grated nutmeg.
Bake and serve
Pour the mixture into a dish lined with puff pastry.
Bake for half an hour.
Before serving, sprinkle with pounded loaf sugar and garnish with thinly cut bits of citron.
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.
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Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,623 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Cream + nutmegtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,920 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
- Set the custard as they cook and add richness and a smooth texture.
- Cream or milk
- Provides the liquid base and moisture that the custard sets from.
- Flour
- Helps thicken the mixture so it holds its shape rather than running.
- Fresh butter
- Adds fat for a rich, tender mouthfeel and smooth texture.
- Pounded loaf sugar
- Adds sweetness and balances the richness of the yolks and butter.
The step that matters
Baking the custard. Egg yolks set when heated, but too much heat or time makes them curdle and turn grainy. Watch the custard and stop baking once it is just set in the centre, since it keeps firming as it cools.
Swap the nutmeg
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, cream, egg, rose, brandy, butter, sugar):
- Nutmegthe original
- Cinnamonfits about as well
- Allspicefits less well
- Tarragonfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, cream, egg, rose, brandy, butter, sugar. 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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