Skip to main content
Dessert

Boiled Custards

A custard made by heating milk with spices, then whisking eggs and simmering until set.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓
Boiled Custards

Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Boiled Custards

Ingredients

Directions

Infuse the milk

  1. Combine the milk, lemon peel, nutmeg, bay leaf, and cinnamon in a stew-pan.

  2. Heat over medium-high until it boils.

  3. Reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes.

Make the custard

  1. Beat the egg yolks and whites together in a bowl.

  2. Gradually pour the warm milk into the eggs while stirring quickly to prevent curdling.

  3. Return the mixture to the heat and stir with a wooden spoon until it just boils.

  4. Strain the custard through a fine sieve.

Finish and serve

  1. Once cooled, add brandy or white wine to taste.

  2. Serve in glasses or cups.

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. Nutmeg + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Laurel + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together691 recipes

    Shared aroma: cinnamyl acetate (sweet aromatic, cinnamon).

  3. Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Lemon + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Nutmeg + laureltop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together872 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Milk
Forms the liquid base that the eggs thicken into a smooth custard.
Egg yolks
Thicken the custard as they set on gentle heating, giving richness.
Egg whites
Add protein that helps the custard set and lightens its body.
Lemon peel
Contributes aromatic citrus oils that flavour the warm milk.

The step that matters

Gradually pour the warm milk into the eggs. Adding hot milk slowly while stirring warms the eggs gradually, so the proteins do not scramble and curdle. Stirring keeps the heat even.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, nutmeg, laurel, cinnamon, egg, brandy):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits about as well
  3. Lemonthe original
  4. Orangefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, nutmeg, laurel, cinnamon, egg, brandy. 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.

More boiled custard recipes

Pudding 12Rich 6 See all 257 →

You might also like

Lemon CakeLemon Cake228 recipesLemon IceLemon Ice147 recipesLemon SherbetLemon Sherbet103 recipesCinnamon RollsCinnamon Rolls71 recipes