Skip to main content
Dessert

Cream

A vanilla custard made with milk, eggs, corn starch, sugar, butter, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓
Cream

Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Cream

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Heat the milk in a saucepan.

  2. In a bowl, mix the corn starch, sugar, and beaten eggs with a little water.

Cook the custard

  1. Add the mixture to the heated milk and cook until it thickens.

  2. Stir in the butter and vanilla, then mix well.

Cool and serve

  1. Allow to cool before serving.

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. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Corn + vanillatop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,943 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  5. Milk + corntop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,955 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Milk
Forms the liquid base that the thickened custard sets from.
Eggs
Proteins set on heating and add body and richness to the custard.
Corn starch
Swells with heat and thickens the liquid into a smooth custard.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and softens the set custard's flavour.
Butter
Adds fat for a smoother, richer mouthfeel.
Vanilla
Adds aroma that rounds out the custard's flavour.

The step that matters

Cook until it thickens after adding the egg mixture to the hot milk. Corn starch thickens only when it reaches heat and needs steady stirring to avoid lumps. Eggs can curdle or scramble if the mixture overheats or boils too hard, so keep the heat moderate and stir constantly while it thickens.

“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 vanilla custard recipes

Cups 4Sauce 3 See all 35 →

You might also like

Vanilla Ice CreamVanilla Ice Cream108 recipesCorn CakeCorn Cake90 recipesCorn Starch CakeCorn Starch Cake89 recipesCorn CakesCorn Cakes22 recipes