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 ↓
The Custard
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Boil the milk.
In a bowl, beat the egg yolks.
Make the custard
Add the beaten egg yolks to the boiling milk.
Stir in the sugar and vanilla or lemon extract.
Finally, add the cornstarch and stir until thickened.
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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Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,187 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
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Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together35,032 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).
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 other ingredients thicken and set into a custard.
- Egg yolks
- Thicken and enrich the custard as their proteins set when heated.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and balances the richness of the egg yolks and milk.
- Cornstarch
- Thickens the liquid as its starch swells and gelatinizes when heated.
The step that matters
Adding the beaten egg yolks to the boiling milk. Egg proteins can scramble and turn grainy if they meet very hot liquid too quickly. Adding the yolks gradually while stirring constantly helps them blend in smoothly and thicken the custard evenly.
“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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