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Custard Roy Ale

A steamed custard made with eggs, cream, and a touch of carmine for color.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Egg and white pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,312 recipes. Both carry 2-methylbutyraldehyde, which smells malty, chocolate. The science ↓

Custard Roy Ale

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Season the eggs with white pepper and salt.

  2. Mix the seasoned eggs with cream.

  3. Color half of the mixture with a drop or two of carmine.

  4. Pour the two custard mixtures into cups.

Steam and shape

  1. Place the cups on a piece of paper in a stew-pan filled with boiling water.

  2. Steam until firm.

  3. Turn out and let cool.

  4. Slice the custard.

  5. Stamp out rounds the size of a dime.

  6. Rinse the rounds in warm water before using.

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. Egg + white peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,312 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

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

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  3. White pepper + creamtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,439 recipes

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

Eggs
Set and firm up when steamed, giving the custard its body.
Cream
Adds richness and softness, keeping the custard tender rather than rubbery.
Carmine
Provides the red color that makes one half of the custard contrast with the other.

The step that matters

Steam until firm. Egg custard sets at a gentle heat; if the water boils hard or the steaming runs too long, the proteins tighten and the custard turns rough, bubbly and watery.

Swap the white pepper

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Tarragonfits about as well
  3. White pepperthe original
  4. Capersfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against 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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