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Dessert

Cup Custard

A baked custard made with eggs, milk, sugar, rose water, citrus zest, and topped with fruit.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Cup Custard

Why it works: Orange and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,437 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Cup Custard

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. In a bowl, beat the eggs and then add the sugar and milk.

  3. Mix in a little rose water and the grated orange or lemon.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into custard cups.

  2. Sprinkle a little cinnamon on top.

  3. Place the cups in a shallow pan filled with hot water.

  4. Bake until the custard thickens, then remove from the oven to prevent whey formation.

  5. Let the custards cool before serving.

  6. Top with sugared fresh fruit before serving.

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. Orange + cinnamontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,437 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Cinnamon + peachtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together625 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  3. Orange + peachtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together385 recipes

    Shared aroma: pinene (pine, turpentine).

  4. Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Milk + peachtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together781 recipes

    Shared aroma: phellandrene (minty).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set the custard as they cook, giving it a firm, sliceable structure.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and adds a little tenderness to its texture.
Whole milk
Provides the liquid base and richness that the eggs set into a smooth custard.

The step that matters

Baking the custard in a water bath. Egg proteins set gently in moderate heat. Cups standing in hot water keep the custard from overheating, which would cause it to curdle or weep whey. Removing it once it thickens stops further setting.

Swap the peach

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, milk, rose, orange, cinnamon):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Lemonfits better
  3. Figfits about as well
  4. Peachthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, milk, rose, orange, cinnamon. 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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