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Almond Custards

A custard made from sweet and bitter almonds, eggs, rose water, and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Almond Custards

Why it works: Almond and rose are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,465 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Almond Custards

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the almond paste

  1. Blanch and pound the sweet and bitter almonds.

  2. Mix the almond paste with rose water.

  3. Rub the mixture through a sieve.

Make the custard

  1. Combine the almond paste with the eggs and boiling cream.

  2. Heat over low flame, stirring constantly until thickened.

  3. Remove from heat and pour back and forth from a jug while stirring until cool.

Set and serve

  1. Pour into cups and refrigerate until set.

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

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Almond + creamtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,130 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

  3. Egg + creamtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together42,166 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  4. Almond + eggtop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,645 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Rose + eggtop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,840 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Egg and cream barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 42,166 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

Sweet almonds
Provide the main nutty flavor and the body of the almond paste.
Bitter almonds
Add a deeper, aromatic almond flavor that balances the sweetness.
Eggs
Thicken the custard as they set under gentle heat.
Boiling cream
Adds richness and moisture, and helps the custard become smooth and fluid before thickening.

The step that matters

Heat over low flame, stirring constantly until thickened. Eggs thicken when heated gently, but too much heat or too little stirring can scramble them into lumps. Constant stirring over low heat keeps the custard smooth as it sets.

Swap the almond

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rose, egg, cream):

  1. Almondthe original
  2. Pistachiofits about as well
  3. Walnutfits less well
  4. Pecansfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against rose, egg, cream. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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