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Dessert

Comjmon Custard Pudding

A simple custard pudding made with eggs, milk, sugar, and optional flavorings, boiled gently and served with sugar or fruit.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,053 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Comjmon Custard Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Whisk the eggs well in a pint basin.

  2. Add enough milk to fill the basin and strain the mixture.

  3. Sweeten with fine sugar and add flavoring if desired.

Cook and serve

  1. Boil the pudding very softly for exactly 30 minutes.

  2. Let it stand for a few minutes, then dish it up.

  3. Serve with sifted sugar on top and sweet sauce or stewed fruit.

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

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

  2. Milk + curranttop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,475 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  3. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

  4. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

  5. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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

Eggs
Set the custard as they heat, giving it structure and a firm, sliceable texture.
Milk
Provides the liquid that the eggs set in, keeping the pudding soft and moist.
Fine sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the savoury eggs and milk.

The step that matters

Cooking very softly for exactly 30 minutes. Egg proteins set as they heat, so gentle heat and an exact time give a smooth, tender custard. Too much heat or too long causes curdling, holes, and a rubbery texture.

Swap the lemon

The recipe marks lemon as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, milk, sugar, currant):

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

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