Why it works: Milk and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 88,785 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Cream Pie
Ingredients
Directions
Make the filling
In a saucepan, combine the milk, sugar, and cornstarch.
Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until thickened.
Remove from heat and let cool slightly.
Beat the eggs in a separate bowl, then gradually add a small amount of the warm mixture to temper the eggs.
Stir the egg mixture back into the saucepan and mix well.
Assemble and set
Pour the filling into a pie crust and let it cool completely before serving.
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.
-
Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
-
Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
-
Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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 filling.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps soften the set custard's flavor.
- Cornstarch
- Thickens the milk as it heats, giving the filling its body.
- Eggs
- Enrich the filling and add richness and additional set once tempered.
The step that matters
Tempering the eggs. Adding hot mixture to eggs gradually, while whisking, warms them slowly. Dumping them in straight can scramble the eggs into lumps, so the filling turns grainy instead of smooth.
“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.
More cream pie recipes
You might also like
White Cake431 recipes
Pound Cake373 recipes
Orange Bundt Cake349 recipes
Spice Cake344 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.