Skip to main content
Dessert

Coffee Custard

A custard made with milk, sugar, coffee, eggs, and cornstarch, finished with a beaten egg white topping.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓
Coffee Custard

Why it works: Milk and coffee are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,202 recipes. Both carry 4-heptenal, which smells creamy, biscuit. The science ↓

Coffee Custard

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Boil the milk with the sugar.

  2. Add the hot coffee, beaten eggs, and cornstarch mixed with a little cold milk, then stir constantly until smooth.

Serve

  1. Pour into a decorative glass dish and let it cool.

  2. Cover with beaten egg white mixed with a little sugar.

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 + coffeetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,202 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  2. Sugar + coffeetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,344 recipes

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

  3. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

  4. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

  5. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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
Thicken the custard as they set with heat, giving it body.
Cornstarch
Thickens the liquid so the custard becomes smooth and sets as it cools.
Milk
Forms the creamy base of the custard.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and balances the bitterness of the coffee.
Strong hot coffee
Supplies the coffee flavour that defines the custard.

The step that matters

Stir constantly until smooth. Egg proteins and starch can scorch on the bottom or form lumps if heated unevenly. Constant stirring spreads the heat and keeps the custard smooth as it thickens.

“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.

More coffee custard recipes

Cream 3 See all 52 →

You might also like

Coffee Ice CreamCoffee Ice Cream91 recipesCoffee CakeCoffee Cake21 recipesCoffee Bavarian CreamCoffee Bavarian Cream14 recipesCoffee PuddingCoffee Pudding10 recipes