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Dessert

Custard, Boiled

A sweet custard made from milk, sugar, cornflour, eggs, and cream, boiled and folded with whipped egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Custard, Boiled

Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Custard, Boiled

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Blend cornflour with a little milk.

  2. Boil the remaining milk with sugar.

  3. Add the cornflour mixture to the boiling milk and simmer for 3 to 4 minutes.

  4. Cool slightly, then stir in the beaten egg yolks over low heat until thickened.

Finish and serve

  1. Strain into a bowl and let cool.

  2. Fold in the cream and stiffly whisked egg whites before serving.

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. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  2. Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

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

  4. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

  5. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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

Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard and carries the sweetness and body.
Cornflour
Thickens the milk as its starch gelatinises when heated, giving the custard body.
Egg yolks
Enrich the custard and help it set smoothly as they thicken with gentle heat.
Cream
Adds fat for a richer, softer texture in the finished custard.
Egg whites
Whisked and folded in, they lighten the custard with a airy, delicate texture.

The step that matters

Stir in the egg yolks over low heat. Egg yolks can curdle or scramble if the custard is too hot. Cooling slightly first and keeping the heat low lets them thicken it 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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