Dish · french
Creme Caramel
A baked custard of milk, egg, and sugar, set over a layer of caramel that turns into a sauce once the custard is unmolded and flipped onto a plate. It's softer than creme brulee, with no burnt sugar shell.
Where it comes from
Caramel custards appear across European cooking under various names, and the French version developed alongside other egg custards as a way to use sugar's caramelized form as both sauce and coating. No single origin point is documented.
What cooks argue about
Cooks argue over baking the custard in a water bath versus without one, since the water bath prevents curdling but adds time and a risk of splashing. Custard-to-milk ratio is a second dispute.
Versions
Nobody has published a creme caramel here yet. When somebody cooks one from a video and publishes it, their version appears in this list, with a link back to the original.
What goes in it
Each one opens everything else made with it.
egg