Name: Custard
Ingredients: 1 quart milk; to taste sweetener; 1 teaspoon peach water or lemon extract or vanilla extract; ½ teaspoon coarse sea salt; butter for greasing; nutmeg for grating

Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Custard

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
In a bowl, combine the milk, sweetener, peach water (or lemon extract or vanilla), and coarse sea salt.
Rub butter over the bottom and sides of a baking dish.
Pour the custard mixture into the prepared dish and grate a little nutmeg on top.
Bake for about 45 minutes, or until a teaspoon handle inserted in the center comes out clean.
Alternatively, butter small cups and place them in a shallow pan of hot water, filling them with the custard mixture.
Keep the water boiling until the custard is set.

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.

Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Milk + peachtop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together781 recipes

Shared aroma: phellandrene (minty).
Peach + nutmegtop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together342 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Peach + buttertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together860 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
Milk + nutmegtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together14,685 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).