Why it works: Wine and brandy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,427 recipes. Both carry gamma-nonanolactone, which smells coconut, sweet. The science ↓
Almond Custard
Ingredients
Directions
Make the custard
In a double boiler, combine the milk, ½ cup of sugar, and finely chopped almonds.
Stir in the yolks of three eggs and cook until thickened like cream.
Pour the mixture into a deep dish.
Top and serve
Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks, adding 4 tablespoons of sugar, wine, and brandy.
Spread the egg white mixture over the custard.
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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Wine + brandytop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,427 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).
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Milk + brandytop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,738 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).
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Milk + almondtop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,800 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Almond + brandytop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,969 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).
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Egg + brandytop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,340 recipes
Shared aroma: acetoin (butter, cream).
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 of the custard that thickens when heated.
- Egg yolks
- Thicken the custard as they set with gentle heat, giving it a creamy texture.
- Egg whites
- Whipped to stiff peaks, they form a light, airy topping over the custard.
- Almonds
- Add nutty flavour and body to the custard when finely chopped.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness to both the custard and the whipped egg white topping.
The step that matters
Cooking the custard until thickened. Egg yolks thicken as their proteins set with gentle heat. Cooking too fast or too hot can curdle the custard, so it should be cooked slowly in a double boiler and stopped once it thickens like cream.
Swap the almond
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, sugar, egg, wine, brandy):
- Cocoafits about as well
- Almondthe original
- Chestnutfits about as well
- Peasfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, sugar, egg, wine, brandy. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“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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