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Dessert

Bakers' Custard Pie

A custard pie made with eggs, sugar, flour, vanilla, milk, salt, and nutmeg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By F. L. Gillette and Hugo Ziemann · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Vanilla and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Bakers' Custard Pie

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Beat up the yolks of three eggs to a cream.

  2. Stir thoroughly a tablespoonful of sifted flour into three tablespoonfuls of sugar.

  3. Add the flour-sugar mixture to the beaten yolks.

  4. Put in a pinch of salt, a teaspoonful of vanilla, and a little grated nutmeg.

  5. Beat the whites of the eggs well.

  6. Add the beaten whites to the mixture.

  7. Add a pint of scalded milk (not boiled) which has been cooled, mixing this in by degrees.

Bake

  1. Turn all into a deep pie-pan lined with puff paste.

  2. Bake from twenty-five to thirty minutes.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

806Calories
28 gProtein
21 gFat
122 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 8 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Cream1 tbsp (15ml) heavy51
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Vanilla1 tsp extract (4ml)12
Nutmeg1 tsp ground (2.2g)12
Salt1 tsp (6g)0

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

By F. L. Gillette and Hugo Ziemann. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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. Vanilla + milktop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  5. Vanilla + nutmegtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,781 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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
Yolks thicken the custard and whites add lightness and structure to the filling.
Milk
Provides the liquid that sets with the eggs into a tender, creamy custard.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps keep the custard tender.
Sifted flour
Adds body and stabilises the custard so it is less likely to curdle.

The step that matters

Adding the scalded milk. The milk should be scalded, not boiled, and cooled before it is mixed in by degrees. Adding hot or boiling milk too quickly can scramble the eggs and cause the custard to curdle.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegthe original
  3. Peppermintfits less well
  4. Turmericfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, flour, vanilla, milk, egg, cream. 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.

More custard pie recipes

Apple 90Lemon 47Coconut 20Sweet Potato 13Chocolate 12Peach 12 See all 313 →

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