Why it works: Egg and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 122,807 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Jelly and Custard Dessert
Ingredients
Directions
In a bowl, mix egg yolks, cornstarch, sugar, and flavoring.
Set the jelly and cut it into squares.
Layer jelly squares in the bottom of a dish.
Pour cold custard over the jelly, then add another layer of jelly.
Repeat until all custard is used.
Beat egg whites to stiff peaks, adding confectioner's sugar.
Spread beaten egg whites in pieces with jelly in between.
Prepare in a tin set inside another with a little water to prevent burning.
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.
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Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
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