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Custard Boiled

A custard made by boiling milk, whisking eggs, and simmering until thickened, then cooled.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Custard Boiled

Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Custard Boiled

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Boil the milk and sweeten it to taste.

  2. Beat the eggs in a bowl until light, then gradually pour the boiling milk over them, stirring constantly.

  3. Transfer the mixture to an enamelled saucepan and stir over low heat until the custard begins to thicken.

  4. Add the vanilla extract and brandy, if using.

  5. Remove the saucepan from the heat and let it sit for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Serve

  1. Pour the custard into a serving dish and stir occasionally to prevent a skin from forming.

  2. Once cooled, the custard is ready to be served.

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 + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Vanilla + brandytop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together806 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: acetoin (butter, cream).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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 that the eggs thicken into a smooth custard.
Eggs
Set when heated, thickening the custard and giving it body.
Castor sugar
Sweetens the custard and balances the richness of the eggs and milk.
Brandy
Adds aroma and flavour to the finished custard.

The step that matters

Stir over low heat until just thickened. Egg proteins set when heated, so gentle heat and constant stirring thicken the custard smoothly. Too much heat can curdle the eggs into lumps.

“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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