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Dessert

Macaroon Ginger Custard

A custard made with milk, eggs, macaroons, sugar, ginger, and topped with meringue.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and ginger are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,054 recipes. Both carry 1-penten-3-one, which smells fish, pungent. The science ↓

Macaroon Ginger Custard

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the custard

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Add the rolled macaroons to the hot milk.

  3. In a bowl, beat the eggs slightly, then mix in the sugar and salt.

  4. Combine the egg mixture with the milk and macaroons.

  5. Pour the mixture into a baking dish and place it in a pan of hot water.

  6. Bake until firm, then remove from the oven.

Top and finish

  1. Top with thin slices of preserved ginger.

  2. For the meringue, beat the egg whites until soft peaks form, then gradually add sugar and beat until stiff.

  3. Spread the meringue over the custard and brown in the oven for a few minutes.

  4. Serve 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. Sugar + gingertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together14,054 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

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

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

  3. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

  4. Milk + gingertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,519 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  5. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

Sugar and ginger barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 14,054 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
Set the custard into a firm, sliceable structure as they cook.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that gives the custard its soft, creamy body.
Macaroons
Add almond flavour and body, thickening the custard as they soak up milk.
Egg whites
Whip into a foam that forms the meringue topping and browns in the oven.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and helps the meringue whip to a stable, glossy foam.

The step that matters

Baking the custard in a water bath. Gentle, indirect heat from the hot water bath lets the eggs set evenly without curdling or becoming rubbery. Baking it too hot or too long can cause weeping and a grainy texture.

Swap the ginger

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Gingerthe original
  4. Allspicefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, egg, sugar. 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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