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Dessert

Rich Custards , Either for Cups or Crust

A custard made with cream, eggs, spices, and flower water, baked in cups or crusts.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Rich Custards , Either for Cups or Crust

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the custard

  1. Boil the cream with nutmeg and cinnamon, stirring constantly.

  2. Pour the boiled cream into a pan and stir until cool to prevent scum.

  3. Beat the yolks of 8 eggs and the whites of 3 eggs, then stir into the cooled cream.

  4. Add a little salt, sugar to taste, and rose or orange flower water.

  5. Strain the mixture through a fine sieve and fill cups or crusts.

Bake or poach

  1. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until they boil up.

  2. For a quicker method, place cups in boiling water, ensuring they are at least one-third above the surface, and gently boil until set.

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. Nutmeg + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

  3. Cinnamon + sugartop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Cream + nutmegtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,920 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Nutmeg + rosetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

Cinnamon and sugar 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

Cream
Provides richness and fat, giving the custard a smooth, creamy body.
Egg yolks
Egg proteins set during gentle heating, giving the custard its structure.
Egg whites
Add protein that helps the custard set firm when heated.
Sugar
Adds sweetness to balance the eggs and cream.

The step that matters

Stir the cream until cool before adding the eggs. Adding beaten eggs to very hot cream can scramble them and cause curdling or a grainy texture. Cooling the cream first lets the eggs thicken it gently and smoothly.

“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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