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Dessert

Strawberry Custard

A custard made with strawberries, egg yolks, milk, and whipped egg whites, served in a glass dish.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and currant are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,475 recipes. Both carry isoamyl acetate, which smells banana, pear. The science ↓

Strawberry Custard

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the custard

  1. Spread a layer of macaroons over the strawberries.

  2. Beat the yolks of 8 eggs and pour in 1 quart of scalding milk, sweetening to taste.

  3. Let the mixture cool, then pour it over the strawberries.

Top and serve

  1. Beat the egg whites to a stiff froth, adding a little sugar.

  2. Optionally, beat some currant jelly with part of the egg whites and layer it alternately with the plain egg whites on top of the custard.

  3. Serve in a glass dish.

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. Milk + curranttop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,475 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

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

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

  5. Egg + curranttop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,734 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

Egg yolks
Thicken the milk into a smooth custard as they set with gentle heat.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard and adds moisture and richness.
Egg whites
Whipped to a stiff froth, they add light, airy structure to the topping.
Strawberries
Provide the main fruit flavor and moisture under the custard.
Macaroons (in the method)
Add a crisp, sweet, almond-like layer that softens into the custard.

The step that matters

Pouring the scalding milk into the beaten yolks. Hot milk can scramble egg yolks if poured in quickly. Pouring slowly while beating warms the yolks gradually, so the custard thickens smoothly instead of turning grainy.

Swap the currant

The recipe marks currant as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, milk, sugar):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Raisinfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, milk, 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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