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Dessert

Cream Pie

A cake base with a custard filling, topped with powdered sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By United Methodist Church (Grayville, Ill.) · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Cream Pie

Ingredients

Directions

Make the cake

  1. Combine one-fourth cup water with three-fourths cup sugar.

  2. Add the beaten yolk of one egg.

  3. Add one cup flour that has been mixed with one teaspoon Royal Baking Powder.

  4. Add beaten white of egg.

  5. Flavor with vanilla or almond.

  6. Bake in one tin.

Make the custard

  1. Put one scant pint of milk in double boiler.

  2. When warm, add the beaten yolks of two eggs.

  3. Add one-half cup sugar.

  4. Add tablespoon butter.

  5. Thicken with two tablespoons flour.

  6. When ready to remove from fire, pour the custard over the well-beaten whites of two eggs.

  7. Flavor with vanilla.

Assemble and serve

  1. Split the cake part.

  2. When cold, fill with custard.

  3. Replace the upper half sprinkle top with powdered sugar.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

731Calories
27 gProtein
14 gFat
120 gCarbs

Counts 4 of 5 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 4 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Waternot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By United Methodist Church (Grayville, Ill.). 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. See the original page.

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 + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  3. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

  5. Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

Flour and milk 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

Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake and custard together.
Eggs
Add structure and richness, and the whites help the cake rise and set.
Royal baking powder
Releases gas in the batter so the cake rises and becomes light.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the cake brown and keep moisture.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard, which thickens as it heats.

The step that matters

Pour the custard over the beaten egg whites. Pouring the hot custard over the whites is done at the moment of removal from the fire, so the whites are gently warmed and folded in without cooking into lumps or deflating. Add it too early or stir too hard and the custard loses its airy texture.

“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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