Why it works: Milk and coffee are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,202 recipes. Both carry 4-heptenal, which smells creamy, biscuit. The science ↓
Coffee Custard
Ingredients
Directions
Make the custard
Boil the milk with the sugar.
Add the hot coffee and beaten eggs.
Stir in the cornstarch mixture and cook until smooth.
Cool and serve
Pour into a glass dish and let it cool.
Top with beaten egg whites and a sprinkle of sugar.
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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Milk + coffeetop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,202 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
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Sugar + coffeetop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together4,344 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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
- Thicken the custard as they cook and add richness and structure.
- Cornstarch
- Thickens the liquid into a smooth, sliceable custard when heated.
- Milk
- Forms the creamy base that the eggs and cornstarch set into.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the custard and balances the bitterness of the coffee.
- Coffee
- Provides the main flavour of the custard.
The step that matters
Cook until smooth after adding the cornstarch mixture. Egg proteins and starch thicken the custard only when heated enough, but overheating can curdle the eggs. Cook gently and stop once the custard thickens and looks smooth.
“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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