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Dessert

Royal Custard

A custard made with egg, milk, parsley, salt, and paprika, baked in a water bath.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Royal Custard

Why it works: Egg and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 88,785 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Royal Custard

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the custard

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Beat the whole egg and egg yolk together until mixed.

  3. Add the milk and strain the mixture through a fine sieve.

  4. Stir in the chopped parsley, salt, and paprika.

Bake

  1. Pour the mixture into a greased small pan, ensuring it is no more than ¾ inch deep.

  2. Place the small pan in a larger pan filled with hot water.

  3. Bake until the custard is firm but not browned.

  4. Remove from the oven and use a thin knife to loosen the custard from the pan.

Serve

  1. Stamp out in fancy shapes and place in soup just 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. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

  2. Egg + parsleytop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,765 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Milk + parsleytop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,011 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set the custard into a firm, sliceable structure as they cook.
Milk
Provides the liquid that the egg proteins set within, giving a tender texture.

The step that matters

Bake until firm but not browned. Egg custard sets through gentle heat; high heat or overbaking makes the proteins tighten and curdle, leaving a rubbery, grainy texture and browning the surface. A water bath around the pan moderates the heat and helps keep it smooth.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cinnamonfits better
  3. Dillfits about as well
  4. Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, milk. 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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