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Dessert

Custard

A custard made with sweet and bitter almonds, rose water, milk, cream, eggs, and Madeira, served chilled.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 18 ingredients
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Custard

Why it works: Almond and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,514 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Custard

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Blanch and pound the sweet and bitter almonds with sugar and rose water.

  2. Gradually add this mixture to warm milk flavored with cinnamon and lemon peel.

  3. Strain the mixture through a fine sieve.

  4. Add cream and beaten egg yolks and whites, then stir over low heat until thick.

  5. Remove from heat and stir until nearly cold to prevent curdling.

Finish and serve

  1. You can bake this in cups or a dish with puff pastry around it.

  2. Beat cream to a froth with white sugar.

  3. Dissolve isinglass and stir it into the cream mixture with Madeira.

  4. Pour into a serving dish and chill for 3-4 hours.

  5. Serve with sweet cakes.

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. Almond + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,514 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Cinnamon + lemontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  4. Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

Sweet almonds
Provide the main flavour and body of the custard base when pounded into the milk.
Egg yolks
Thicken the custard as they set over low heat and add richness.
Egg whites
Add lightness and help the custard set when gently heated.
Isinglass
Acts as a gelatin-like setting agent so the cream mixture firms when chilled.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, soft texture to the custard.

The step that matters

Remove from heat and stir until nearly cold. Egg-thickened custard can curdle or turn grainy if it keeps cooking. Stirring while it cools gently finishes the set and keeps it smooth.

Swap the almond

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

  1. Almondthe original
  2. Pistachiofits about as well
  3. Walnutfits less well
  4. Chestnutfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, rose, milk, cinnamon, lemon, cream, 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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