Why it works: Milk and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 88,785 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Boiled Cornflour Custard
Ingredients
Directions
Mix the cornflour with a little cold milk to form a smooth paste.
In a clean saucepan, bring the remaining milk to a boil.
Stir in the cornflour paste and add the sugar. Boil for a few minutes.
Beat the egg in a bowl.
Gradually pour in the hot cornflour mixture, stirring constantly.
Let it cool, stirring occasionally to prevent a skin from forming.
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.
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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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
- Cornflour
- Thickens the milk into a smooth custard as its starch swells when heated.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base that the cornflour thickens into custard.
- Egg
- Beaten egg is added to the hot mixture, contributing richness and body to the custard.
- Lump sugar
- Adds sweetness to the custard.
The step that matters
Gradually pour in the hot cornflour mixture, stirring constantly. Adding the hot mixture slowly while stirring keeps the beaten egg from scrambling. Constant stirring also distributes heat evenly so the custard thickens smoothly without lumps.
“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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