Name: Boiled Custards Foe Tarts
Ingredients: 1 pint milk; 1 bay leaf; 1 blade mace; 1 ounce lemon or Seville orange peel; 3 ounces powdered white sugar; 6 eggs (whites and yolks separated); 2 tablespoons cold milk; Nutmeg (for garnish)

Why it works: Mace and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,557 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Boiled Custards Foe Tarts

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard base

Boil the milk with the bay leaf, mace, and lemon or orange peel.
Remove the flavoring and dissolve the sugar in the milk.
Mix the egg whites and yolks with the cold milk to prevent curdling.
Gradually add the egg mixture to the milk, stirring continuously.

Cook and serve

Place the custard in a basin that fits on top of a saucepan half full of boiling water.
Stir continually for 20 minutes, ensuring the water remains boiling.
Pour the custard into glasses or cups.
Sprinkle nutmeg on top.
Set aside to cool.

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.

Mace + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,557 recipes

Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together11,318 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together19,053 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Milk + nutmegtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together14,685 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Egg + nutmegtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together24,744 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Egg and nutmeg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 24,744 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

Eggs: Coagulate when heated, thickening the milk into a smooth custard.
Milk: Forms the liquid base that the eggs thicken and carries the flavourings.
Powdered white sugar: Sweetens the custard and softens its flavour against the eggs.
Lemon or seville orange peel: Infuses citrus aroma into the milk during boiling.

The step that matters

Gradually add the egg mixture to the milk, stirring continuously.. Egg proteins set at around 70°C and scramble if they meet hot liquid too quickly. Adding the mixture slowly while stirring keeps the eggs evenly dispersed so the custard thickens smoothly rather than curdling.