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Dessert

Custard Slices

Custard slices are pastry layers topped with custard, whipped egg whites, and almonds.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and apricot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 852 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Custard Slices

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the base

  1. Roll out the pastry into a thin square and lay it on a baking sheet.

  2. Mix the cake crumbs, ground almonds, and apricot jam together, then add the melted butter and spread the mixture over the pastry.

  3. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until golden.

  4. Once cool, cover with the pastry custard.

Top and finish

  1. Whip the egg whites until stiff, then add the sugar and essence of almonds.

  2. Spread the whipped mixture over the custard and sprinkle with chopped browned almonds.

  3. Let it dry in a cool oven at 300°F (150°C).

  4. Cut into finger lengths when cold.

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. Almond + apricottop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together852 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Butter + almondtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,245 recipes

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

  3. Butter + apricottop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,458 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Puff or flaky pastry
Forms the crisp, flaky base that holds the filling.
Cake crumbs
Bulk for the base, soaking up butter and jam to form a moist layer.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the base brown and taste savoury-sweet.
Pastry custard
Provides a soft, creamy middle layer between base and meringue.
Egg whites
Whipped to stiff foam, they create the light, airy meringue topping.
Sugar
Sweetens the meringue and helps stabilise the whipped egg whites.

The step that matters

Whip the egg whites until stiff. Egg whites must be whipped to stiff peaks before sugar is added, since they trap air to form the light topping. Under-whipped or greasy whites will deflate and weep, and the meringue will not dry properly in the cool oven.

Swap the apricot

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, almond, 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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