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Dessert

Boston Cream Pie

A pie with a custard cream filling and a baked crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By F. L. Gillette and Hugo Ziemann · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 13 ingredients
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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 ↓

Boston Cream Pie

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Put a pint of milk on the stove to boil.

  2. Break two eggs into a dish.

  3. Add one cup of sugar and half a cup of flour (previously mixed after beating well) to the dish.

  4. Stir the mixture into the milk just as the milk commences to boil.

  5. Add an ounce of butter.

  6. Keep stirring in one direction until it thickens.

  7. Flavor with vanilla or lemon.

Make the cake

  1. Beat three eggs separately.

  2. Add one cup of granulated sugar.

  3. Add one and a half cups of sifted flour.

  4. Add one large teaspoonful of baking powder.

  5. Add two tablespoonfuls of milk or water.

  6. Divide the batter in half.

  7. Bake each half in a medium-sized pie tin.

  8. Bake in a rather quick oven until straw color.

Assemble and serve

  1. When done and cool, split each pie in half with a sharp broad-bladed knife.

  2. Spread half the cream between each half.

  3. Serve cold.

  4. Flavor the cake part the same as the custard.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

833Calories
27 gProtein
26 gFat
120 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 5 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 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
Set the custard and give structure to the cake batter.
Flour
Provides structure to the custard and the cake crumb.
Butter
Adds richness and a smoother texture to the custard.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter so the cake rises and becomes light.
Milk
Supplies the liquid that thickens into the custard and moistens the cake batter.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the cake brown and stay tender.

The step that matters

Keep stirring the custard in one direction until it thickens. Egg proteins and starch can clump or scorch if heated unevenly, so steady stirring keeps the custard smooth as it thickens.

“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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