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Dessert

Rich Boiled Custard

A custard made by simmering cream with sugar and lemon rind, then adding beaten egg yolks and thickening over low heat.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Rich Boiled Custard

Why it works: Cream and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Rich Boiled Custard

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cream and yolks

  1. Take ½ cup of cream from the quart and set aside.

  2. Simmer the remaining cream with sugar and lemon rind for a few minutes.

  3. Beat the egg yolks.

  4. Strain the beaten yolks.

  5. Mix the strained yolks with the reserved cream.

Make the custard

  1. Stir the boiling cream mixture into the egg yolks.

  2. Thicken the custard over low heat until it coats the back of a spoon.

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. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

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

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

  3. Lemon + eggtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  4. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

  5. Cream + eggtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together42,166 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

Egg yolks
Thicken the custard as they set with gentle heat, and add richness.
Cream
Provides the fat and body that make the custard smooth and rich.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and softens its flavor.

The step that matters

Thicken the custard over low heat until it coats the back of a spoon.. Egg yolk proteins set at moderate temperatures, so high heat or overheating can curdle the custard into grainy lumps. Low heat and frequent stirring allow gradual thickening that stays smooth.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Strawberryfits about as well
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, sugar, egg. 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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