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Dessert

Banana Foamy Custard

A custard made with boiling water, sugar, cornstarch, butter, egg whites, orange juice, and banana pieces.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Banana and orange are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,118 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓

Banana Foamy Custard

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. In a small saucepan, mix the sugar and cornstarch thoroughly.

  2. Pour the boiling water over the mixture, stirring constantly until it boils and becomes clear.

  3. Remove from heat and add the butter.

  4. Whip the egg whites until stiff, then fold them into the pudding mixture over low heat until it begins to puff up.

Finish and chill

  1. Remove from heat and carefully stir in the orange juice and banana pieces.

  2. Transfer to individual serving dishes and chill 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.

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. Banana + orangetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,118 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  2. Banana + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  3. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Sugar + bananatop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,102 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

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

What each ingredient does

Cornstarch
Thickens the liquid into a smooth, set custard as it heats and clears.
Egg whites
Whipped and folded in, they add lightness and a airy, puffed texture.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and helps stabilise the whipped egg whites.
Bananas
Add fruity flavour and soft body to the finished custard.
Orange juice
Adds acidity and citrus aroma that brightens the sweet custard.
Butter
Stirred in off the heat, it adds richness and a smooth mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Folding the whipped egg whites over low heat. Egg whites collapse if overmixed or overheated, so fold gently and keep the heat low so they puff without scrambling into the starch mixture.

Swap the orange

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Coconutfits better
  4. Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, banana, butter. 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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