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Cup Custard

A custard baked in individual cups using eggs, sugar, milk, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Cup Custard

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 ↓

Cup Custard

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderately hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

Mix the custard

  1. Beat the eggs together until well mixed.

  2. Add the sugar to the eggs and mix well.

  3. Combine the egg mixture with the milk and vanilla.

Bake in water

  1. Pour the mixture into cups and place them in a pan of boiling water, ensuring the water does not bubble over the cups.

  2. Watch carefully until the custard is set.

Cool

  1. Remove the cups and place them in cold water to stop the cooking.

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

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

  3. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

  4. Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

  5. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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

Eggs
Set when heated, giving the custard its firm, sliceable structure.
Milk
Provides the liquid base and moisture that keeps the custard tender.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the savory taste of the eggs and milk.

The step that matters

Watch the custard as it sets in the water bath. Egg proteins set with gentle heat, and too much heat makes the custard curdle, weep or turn rubbery. Keeping the water below a bubbling boil and removing the cups once set prevents overcooking.

“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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