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Dessert

Almond Custard

A custard made with almonds, cream, rose water, egg yolks, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and sugar 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 ↓

Almond Custard

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Blanch and finely grind the almonds with water.

  2. Heat the cream with rose-water.

Make the custard

  1. Combine the cream with the egg yolks and sugar.

  2. Add the ground almonds and stir over low heat until thickened, but do not boil.

Chill and serve

  1. Pour into cups and chill 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.

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

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

  4. Almond + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,679 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  5. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Almonds
Provide body and a nutty flavour that gives the custard its character.
Cream
Supplies fat and richness, giving the custard a smooth, silky mouthfeel.
Egg yolks
Act as the setting agent, thickening the custard as it gently heats.
Rose-water
Adds a delicate floral aroma to the custard.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the richness of the cream and eggs.

The step that matters

Thickening over low heat without boiling. Egg yolks set as they warm, but if the custard boils the proteins curdle and turn grainy. Stirring over low heat keeps it smooth and evenly thickened.

Swap the almond

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, rose, egg, sugar. 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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