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Custard

Custard made with milk, egg yolks, bitter almonds or peach leaves, and brandy, cooked gently until thickened.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Custard

Why it works: Milk and brandy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,738 recipes. Both carry gamma-nonanolactone, which smells coconut, sweet. The science ↓

Custard

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Heat the milk with the pounded almonds or peach leaves in a saucepan until slightly cooled.

  2. Gradually mix in the well-beaten yolks of the eggs.

  3. Stir over low heat until the mixture thickens.

Finish and cool

  1. Pour into a basin and add the brandy or noyau.

  2. Stir occasionally until cold.

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 + brandytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,738 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  2. Milk + almondtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,800 recipes

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

  3. Almond + brandytop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,969 recipes

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

  4. Egg + brandytop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,340 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetoin (butter, cream).

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

Egg yolks
Thicken the milk as they set over gentle heat, giving the custard its body.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the yolks thicken into a smooth custard.
Bitter almonds or peach leaves
Infuse the milk with their characteristic almond-like aroma.
Brandy or noyau
Adds a boozy, almond-like aroma to the finished custard.

The step that matters

Stir over low heat until the mixture thickens. Egg yolks set at moderate temperatures and can scramble if overheated, leaving lumps. Gentle, constant stirring keeps the custard smooth and thick.

Swap the almond

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, egg, brandy. 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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