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Dessert

Almond Custard

A custard made with bitter and sweet almonds, cinnamon, sugar, milk or cream, egg yolks, and rose water.

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

Almond Custard

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard base

  1. Grate fresh lemon peel into the sugar and mix with the bitter almonds and cinnamon in the milk or cream.

  2. Simmer for 15 minutes, then strain and let cool.

Finish the custard

  1. Beat the yolks of the eggs and mix with the cooled milk mixture.

  2. Simmer again until thickened into custard.

  3. Add the sweet almonds beaten smooth with rose water.

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. Almond + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,514 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Cinnamon + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Cinnamon + sugartop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Almond + rosetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,465 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Cinnamon + rosetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together892 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

Cinnamon and sugar 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

Egg yolks
Thicken the custard as they set when gently heated, giving it a smooth, rich body.
Milk or cream
Forms the liquid base that carries the flavours and becomes the custard when thickened.
Lump sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the bitterness of the almonds.
Bitter almonds
Supply the strong, characteristic almond aroma and flavour to the custard.

The step that matters

Simmer again until thickened into custard. Egg yolks thicken as their proteins set with heat, but if the mixture gets too hot or boils, the yolks can scramble and curdle. Keep the heat gentle and stir constantly until it coats a spoon.

“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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