Of this delicious family recipe for natilla (egg custard), The Cuban Table cookbook author Ana Sofia Peláez recalls: “Armed only with our grandmother’s list of ingredients with no indication of how she put them together, for years my sister Carmen and I took turns attempting her natilla to no avail. We’d come close but fall short of the smoothly rich custard she made so effortlessly. Finally, scribbled as a side note among her niece’s papers, I found the full recipe. Contrary to what I knew about making custard, the ingredients are beaten together cold then strained and simmered. With a wooden spoon in hand, my sister followed the new directions and suddenly there it was, just as we remembered it. The next morning, I was relieved to see the natilla still in the fridge, half expecting it to have disappeared again.”

For more classic Cuban recipes, check out The Cuban Table.