Name: Strawberry Cream Pie
Ingredients: one-fourth cups flour; one-half cup milk to butter; three tablespoonfuls cold milk; one cup scalded milk; one-fourth cup sugar; one-fourth teaspoon fill lemon extract; one-fourth cup powdered sugar; two rounding tablespoonfuls butter; one whole egg; one-half level teaspoonfuls bak- ing powder; two round layer cake pans; one-half level table- spoonfuls corn starch; one-half teaspoon- ful butter; one well beaten egg; two eggs very stiff; half conceal them in the fluffy mixture; salt; lemon juice

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 ↓

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 + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Milk + corntop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,955 recipes

Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + corntop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,165 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Lemon + corntop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,927 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Flour and butter 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

Flour: Provides the structure that holds the cake's crumb together as it bakes.
Eggs: Add structure and richness, and thicken the filling and set the meringue when cooked.
Corn starch: Thickens the cream filling as it heats in the milk.
Baking powder: Releases gas during baking, lifting the cake so it becomes light and open.
Milk: Adds moisture to the cake batter and forms the base of the cooked cream filling.
Butter: Adds fat that tenderises the cake and gives the batter richness.

The step that matters

Cook the cream filling thoroughly, stirring after it first thickens. Cornstarch must be heated fully to swell and set the custard, so undercooking leaves it thin and raw-tasting. Stirring after it thickens prevents lumps and scorching on the bottom of the pan.

Swap the lemon

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

Vanillafits better
Raisinfits better
Coconutfits better
Lemonthe original

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

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Flour	1 cup (125g) all-purpose	455
Milk	1 cup (244ml) whole	149
Butter	1 tbsp (14g)	102
Egg	1 large egg (50g)	78
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Lemon	juice of 1 lemon (48ml)	12
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0
Cake	not in our table	0

Strawberry Cream Pie