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Dessert

Almond Custard

A custard made with cream, cinnamon, mace, almonds, rose water, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and almond match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,514 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Almond Custard

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. In a pan, combine cream, cinnamon, and mace; bring to a boil and let cool.

  2. Blanch almonds and grind them fine with a little rose water.

Make the custard

  1. Mix ground almonds with the cooled cream and sweeten to taste.

  2. Heat the mixture on low, stirring until thickened but do not boil.

Serve

  1. Pour into cups and let cool.

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.

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. Cinnamon + almondtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,514 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Almond + apricottop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together852 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Cinnamon + apricottop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together618 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).

  4. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  5. Cinnamon + macetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

What each ingredient does

Cream
Forms the body of the custard and, when gently thickened, sets into a smooth, rich texture.
Almonds
Provide the main flavour and body, and their ground fats help give the custard a creamy mouthfeel.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard to taste, balancing the richness of the cream and almonds.

The step that matters

Heat the mixture on low, stirring until thickened but do not boil.. Cream mixtures thicken as egg-free proteins and starches set with gentle heat; boiling can cause the dairy to separate or scorch and leave a grainy texture.

“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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