Why it works: Corn and cinnamon work together. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 647 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓
Caramel Custard
Ingredients
Directions
Make the custard and caramel
Thicken the milk with corn starch in a saucepan over medium heat.
In a flat skillet, melt the sugar over medium heat, stirring constantly until it turns into a brown syrup.
Cook and cool
Pour the custard mixture over the caramel in the skillet.
Cook for 30 minutes until smooth.
Let it cool.
Serve
Serve in wine glasses topped with whipped cream and a sprinkle of cinnamon.
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.
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Corn + cinnamontop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together647 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,655 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
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Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together30,779 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Milk + corntop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,955 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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 of the custard and gives it its creamy body.
- Corn starch
- Thickens the milk as it heats, giving the custard a smooth, set texture.
- White sugar
- Provides sweetness and, when melted, forms the brown caramel that flavours the dish.
The step that matters
Melting the sugar into brown syrup. Sugar darkens quickly once it starts to melt, and past a light amber it turns bitter and can burn. Stirring constantly and watching the colour keeps the caramel evenly coloured and sweet rather than scorched.
“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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