Why it works: Almond and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,514 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓
Boiled Custards
Ingredients
Directions
Make the custard
Boil the almond milk or plain milk with the powdered sugar and laurel leaves or vanilla/orange-flower water.
In a bowl, beat the eggs.
Stir the boiling milk mixture into the eggs.
Pour the mixture into a jug and place it in a saucepan of boiling water.
Keep stirring until it thickens, but do not let it boil.
Serve
Pour the custard into glasses or cups and sprinkle a little ground cinnamon on each.
Serve in a dish for the table.
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.
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Almond + cinnamontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together3,514 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Laurel + cinnamontop 4% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together691 recipes
Shared aroma: cinnamyl acetate (sweet aromatic, cinnamon).
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Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together30,779 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Almond + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together15,679 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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
- Thicken the milk as they set gently, giving the custard its body.
- Almond milk or plain milk
- Forms the liquid base that the eggs thicken into custard.
- Powdered sugar
- Sweetens the custard and dissolves easily into the warm milk.
The step that matters
Keep stirring until it thickens, but do not let it boil.. Egg proteins set gradually as they warm; if the custard gets too hot or boils, the eggs can scramble and curdle, leaving a grainy texture.
Swap the almond
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, laurel, egg, cinnamon):
- Almondthe original
- Chestnutfits about as well
- Walnutfits about as well
- Lentilsfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, laurel, egg, cinnamon. 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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