Skip to main content
Dessert

Caramel Custard

A custard made with milk, sugars, eggs, corn starch, and vanilla, caramelized with brown sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓
Caramel Custard

Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Caramel Custard

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Combine milk, white sugar, and salt over medium heat in a farina kettle.

  2. If you don't have a farina kettle, use a tin pail set in a pot of hot water.

  3. Beat the eggs in a large bowl without separating them.

  4. Wet the corn starch with a little cold milk.

  5. Heat the brown sugar in a tin pan over medium heat, stirring until it is thoroughly scorched but not burned.

Make the custard

  1. Pour the scalding milk mixture onto the beaten eggs.

  2. Return the mixture to the kettle over medium heat and stir in the corn starch until it thickens.

  3. Stir in the scorched sugar and remove from heat.

  4. Add a generous amount of vanilla extract.

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. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Corn + vanillatop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,943 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  4. Milk + corntop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,955 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

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

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

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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 when heated and thicken it into a smooth body.
Corn starch
Thickens the milk mixture so the custard holds its shape.
Brown sugar
Scorched to add a deep, caramel flavour and colour.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard and carries the sweetness and richness.

The step that matters

Stirring the corn starch into the custard. Starch thickens only when heated, and stirring keeps it dispersed so it does not clump. Stirring over medium heat until it thickens prevents lumps and a thin or grainy 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.

More caramel custard recipes

Pudding 3Soft 3 See all 133 →

You might also like

Vanilla Ice CreamVanilla Ice Cream108 recipesCorn CakeCorn Cake90 recipesCorn Starch CakeCorn Starch Cake89 recipesCorn CakesCorn Cakes22 recipes