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Dessert

Almond Cream Pie

A custard pie made with milk, egg yolks, sugar, flour, almonds, and topped with meringue.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,673 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Almond Cream Pie

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Heat the milk in a double boiler.

  2. In a bowl, beat the egg yolks with the sugar.

  3. Dissolve the flour in a little cold milk and add it to the egg mixture.

  4. Add a pinch of salt and stir until thick.

  5. Stir in the chopped almonds and let the mixture cool before adding flavoring.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake the pie crust separately and fill it with the almond mixture.

  2. Beat the egg whites until stiff, then add 2 tablespoons of sugar and spread over the pie.

  3. Brown the topping in the oven and serve cold.

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. Flour + almondtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  4. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Milk + almondtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,800 recipes

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

Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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

Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard, which thickens as it heats.
Egg yolks
Thicken the custard and add richness as they set with heat.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and helps the meringue topping become stable and glossy.
Flour
Thickens the custard so it holds its shape when cooled.
Blanched almonds
Provide the main almond flavour and a fine, creamy texture in the filling.
Egg whites
Whipped into a stiff foam that forms the topping, which browns in the oven.

The step that matters

Cook the custard until thick. Flour and egg yolks thicken only when heated enough, but overheating can curdle the eggs. Stirring steadily over gentle heat keeps the custard smooth and thick enough to hold the almond filling.

Swap the almond

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

  1. Almondthe original
  2. Milletfits about as well
  3. Chestnutfits less well
  4. Hazelnutfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, egg, sugar, flour. 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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