Name: Mrs Margaret Washburn
Ingredients: one pint of cream; half cups sweet milk; one tablespoon corn starch; six teaspoons sugar; one cup sugar; one-half cup milk in whicn dissolve half teaspoon soda; one-half cups flour; one teaspoon baking powder; half cup sugar; one cup of boiling milk; one half pints sweet milk; five tablespoons sugar; one tablespoon corn starch in sugar; one teaspoon butter; one tablespoon melted butter; one tablespoon flour; two tablespoons sugar; three pints water; half cups sugar; one cup sugar until stiff; one cup cugar; two tablespoons corn starch; one cup boiling water; two tablespoons flour thor- oughly mixed wilh sugar; one-fourth cups water; two tablespoons pulverized sugar; a small pinch of salt; one large tablespoon flour stirred in the sugar; three eggs; two pies take three

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).
Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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 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

Eggs: Whites beaten to a stiff froth give the frosting its light, airy structure.
Corn starch: Thickens the lemon mixture as it cooks, giving the filling body that sets when cool.
Sugar: Sweetens the filling and balances the sharpness of the lemon juice.
Lemon: Supplies the juice and rind that give the filling its tart, aromatic flavor.

The step that matters

Cook the filling until thick. Starch thickens only when it reaches a full boil and is held there briefly. Undercooked filling stays runny and will not set properly once cooled.

Swap the lemon

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

Vanillafits better
Raisinfits better
Coconutfits better
Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, milk, corn, sugar, flour, butter, egg. 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
Cream	1 tbsp (15ml) heavy	51
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Walnut	1 walnut half (4g)	26
Lemon	juice of 1 lemon (48ml)	12
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0
Water	not in our table	0
Pie	not in our table	0

Mrs Margaret Washburn