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Dessert

Creme Caramel {Caramel Cream}

A custard dessert with a caramelized sugar base, steamed until firm.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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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 ↓

Creme Caramel {Caramel Cream}

Ingredients

Directions

Make the caramel

  1. In a copper saucepan, combine the loaf sugar with a few drops of water and cook until it turns dark amber and has a treacle-like consistency.

  2. Pour the caramel into a dry charlotte mould, turning it to coat the sides completely.

Make the custard

  1. In another saucepan, bring the milk to a boil with half a vanilla pod.

  2. Remove the vanilla pod, then whisk in the beaten eggs and caster sugar.

  3. Strain the custard into the prepared mould, cover with buttered paper, and steam for about 30 minutes until firm.

Unmould and serve

  1. Carefully unmould onto a hot dish and serve. No sauce is needed as the caramel becomes liquid during cooking.

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. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

  2. Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

  3. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

Sugar and milk 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

Eggs
Set the custard into a firm, sliceable structure as they cook.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard, giving it a soft, creamy texture.
Loaf sugar
Caramelises to form the coloured, flavourful layer that becomes the sauce.
Caster sugar
Adds sweetness to the custard, balancing the richness of the eggs and milk.

The step that matters

Cooking the caramel to dark amber. Sugar darkens quickly once it starts to colour, so it can move from deep amber to bitter and burnt within seconds. Stopping at the right colour gives sweetness and flavour, and the caramel then melts into the liquid sauce.

“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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