Why it works: Egg and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 118,967 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓
Savoury Custard
Ingredients
Directions
Make the custard
Whisk the egg yolks and egg white together.
Mix in the clear soup.
Pour the mixture into a buttered gallipot.
Cover the top with buttered paper.
Steam and set
Place the gallipot in a saucepan with 2-3 inches of hot water, ensuring the water does not touch the paper.
Steam gently for about 15 minutes until set.
Let it cool.
Shape and serve
Cut into thin slices.
Shape the slices into small circles or diamonds.
Place them in the soup to serve.
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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Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Egg yolks
- Thicken and set the custard, giving it a rich, tender texture when gently heated.
- Egg white
- Adds protein that sets with gentle heat, helping the custard hold its shape when sliced.
- Clear soup
- Provides the liquid base and savory flavor that the eggs set into a custard.
The step that matters
Steam gently. Egg custard becomes grainy, watery, or full of holes if it boils or cooks too hot. Gentle steam, with water kept away from the paper cover, lets the proteins set evenly and smoothly.
“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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