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Consommé À LA Royale

Clear consommé served with small pieces of cooked egg custard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Consommé À LA Royale

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the custard

  1. Beat the eggs in a bowl, then add the milk and salt.

  2. Grease a cup with butter and pour the egg mixture into it.

  3. Place the cup in a pan of warm water and cook in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) until firm in the center.

Serve

  1. Let it cool, then cut into small, decorative pieces.

  2. Place the pieces in a tureen and pour the boiling consommé or clear stock over them.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Egg + milktop 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

Eggs
Set into a firm custard that holds its shape when cut into pieces.
Milk
Adds moisture and softness, keeping the custard tender rather than rubbery.
Consommé or clear stock
Provides the hot, savory liquid that surrounds the custard pieces in the tureen.

The step that matters

Cooking the custard gently in a water bath. Egg proteins set at moderate temperatures, and a warm water bath in a slow oven keeps the custard from overheating. Too much heat makes it curdled, spongy, or full of holes.

“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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