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Almond Custards

A custard made from sweet and bitter almonds, rose water, eggs, and boiling cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Almond Custards

Why it works: Almond and rose are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,465 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Almond Custards

Ingredients

Directions

Make the almond base

  1. Blend the sweet and bitter almonds with rose water to make a paste.

  2. Rub the almond paste through a sieve into a bowl.

  3. Mix the almond paste with the eggs until well combined.

  4. Gradually stir in the boiling cream.

Cook and set

  1. Heat the mixture over low heat, stirring constantly until it thickens.

  2. Remove from heat as soon as it thickens.

  3. Pour the mixture back and forth between two jugs to cool.

  4. Pour into cups and refrigerate 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.

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. Almond + rosetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,465 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Almond + creamtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,130 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

  3. Egg + creamtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together42,166 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  4. Almond + eggtop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,645 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Rose + eggtop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,840 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Egg and cream barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 42,166 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

Sweet almonds
Provide the main body and nutty flavour of the custard.
Bitter almonds
Add a deeper, more pronounced almond aroma to the custard.
Eggs
Thicken the custard as they set with gentle heat, giving it structure.
Boiling cream
Adds richness and moisture, and its heat helps begin thickening the eggs.

The step that matters

Removing the custard from heat as soon as it thickens. Egg proteins set with heat and can curdle or turn grainy if overcooked, so the custard must be taken off the heat once it coats a spoon and thickens.

Swap the almond

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rose, egg, cream):

  1. Almondthe original
  2. Pistachiofits about as well
  3. Walnutfits less well
  4. Pecansfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against rose, egg, cream. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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