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Caramel Custard Puddings

A caramel-coated custard pudding made with sugar, milk, eggs, and vanilla, steamed until set.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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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 ↓

Caramel Custard Puddings

Ingredients

Directions

Make the caramel

  1. Melt the sugar in a pan until it browns.

  2. Add the cold water to the browned sugar.

  3. Boil the mixture until it reaches a nice brown color.

  4. Pour the caramel into six small dariole moulds, ensuring the caramel coats every part.

Make the custard

  1. Boil the milk, add sugar to the boiled milk, and flavor the milk with vanilla.

  2. When cool, pour the milk mixture onto the beaten egg yolks.

  3. Fill the moulds with the mixture.

Steam and serve

  1. Steam the puddings for 15 to 20 minutes.

  2. Turn the puddings out.

  3. Serve hot or 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.

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

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

  4. Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

  5. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

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

Eggs
Egg yolks set the custard into a firm but tender texture when steamed.
Milk
Milk provides the liquid that gives the custard its smooth, moist body.
Lump sugar
Sugar browns to make the caramel, adding color, sweetness and a deeper flavor.
Vanilla
Vanilla adds a fragrant aroma to the milk that carries through the custard.

The step that matters

Browning the caramel. Cooking the sugar until brown creates caramel color and flavor, but it can scorch quickly and turn bitter. Stop when it reaches a nice brown, since it keeps darkening after removal from heat.

“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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