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Savoury Custard

A steamed custard made with egg yolks, egg white, beef tea, butter, and salt.

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

Why it works: Beef and tea work together. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 417 recipes. Both carry 2-methyl-3-(methyldithio)furan, which smells thiamin, meat. The science ↓

Savoury Custard

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the custard

  1. Whisk the egg yolks and egg white together in a bowl.

  2. Stir in the cold beef tea and salt.

  3. Grease a cup or small jelly can and pour in the mixture.

Cook

  1. Cover with a greased paper and place in a pan of boiling water, ensuring the water comes halfway up the cup.

  2. Steam for about 20 minutes without shaking the cup to prevent curdling.

  3. Alternatively, bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) for about 15 minutes.

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. Beef + teatop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together417 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methyl-3-(methyldithio)furan (thiamin, meat).

  2. Beef + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,847 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  3. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Tea + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together703 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  5. Egg + beeftop 31% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Thicken the custard as they set, giving it a smooth, rich structure.
Egg white
Adds protein that helps the custard set firm when cooked gently.
Beef tea
Provides the liquid base and savory flavor of the custard.
Butter or fresh dripping
Adds fat for richness and mouthfeel; also used to grease the cup.

The step that matters

Steam without shaking. Egg proteins set into a gentle, even structure when heated slowly. Shaking the cup or cooking above a gentle heat can break the set and cause curdling, leaving a grainy, weeping texture.

“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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