Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Cream Pie
Ingredients
Directions
Make the filling
In a double boiler, combine milk and butter.
In a bowl, beat egg yolks with sugar and flour until smooth.
Moisten the mixture with hot milk, then stir it into the boiling milk.
Cook for 3 minutes, then add flavoring.
Top and brown
Pour the mixture into a baked pie crust.
Beat egg whites until stiff, then add sugar and a few drops of flavoring.
Spread the egg white mixture on top and brown in the oven.
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.
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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 that thickens when heated.
- Egg yolks
- Thicken the custard as they cook and add richness.
- Flour
- Stabilizes the custard by thickening it as it heats.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the filling and the meringue topping.
- Egg whites
- Whipped into a stiff foam that forms the topping and browns in the oven.
- Butter
- Adds richness and a soft, smooth mouthfeel to the filling.
The step that matters
Cooking the custard after adding the hot milk. The egg yolks and flour must be heated until the mixture thickens. Stirring while it cooks keeps the yolks from curdling and gives a smooth, set filling.
Swap the orange
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, butter, egg, sugar, flour):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Figfits better
- Orangethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, butter, 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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