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Dessert

Durham Custard

A custard made with cream, egg yolks, ale, sugar, and served over toasted bread squares.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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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 ↓

Durham Custard

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. In a saucepan, combine the cream and well-beaten egg yolks.

  2. Add the mild strong ale and sweeten to taste.

  3. Stir the mixture over low heat until it nearly boils.

Serve

  1. Pour the custard over the toasted bread squares in a dish.

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

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

  2. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  3. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Cream + breadtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,789 recipes

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

Cream and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 42,166 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

Cream
Provides the rich base that gives the custard its body and smooth mouthfeel.
Egg yolks
Thicken the custard as they gently heat, setting it into a creamy texture.
Mild strong ale
Adds malty, bittersweet flavour and liquid that loosens the custard.
Thin toasted bread
Soaks up the custard and gives the dish its base and a firmer texture.

The step that matters

Stir the mixture over low heat until it nearly boils. Egg yolks begin to thicken around 70°C and curdle if overheated. Gentle, constant stirring over low heat lets the custard set smoothly without scrambling.

“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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