Why it works: Butter and milk 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 ↓
Cream Pie
Ingredients
Directions
Make the custard
In a bowl, beat the egg yolks and sugar until smooth.
Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat.
Add the milk and bring to a simmer.
In a separate bowl, mix cornstarch with a little milk to create a slurry.
Stir the slurry into the simmering milk mixture.
Cook until thickened, then remove from heat.
Add the egg yolk mixture and extract, stirring well.
Fill and cool
Pour into a pie crust and let cool before serving.
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.
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.
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Egg + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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
- Egg yolks
- Add richness and help set the filling as it cooks.
- Cornstarch
- Thickens the milk mixture into a smooth, sliceable custard.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base that thickens into the custard.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the custard and adds body to the filling.
The step that matters
Cook until thickened. Cornstarch needs to reach a simmer and be stirred constantly to swell and thicken fully. Undercooked starch leaves a thin, runny filling, while the egg yolks must be added after removing from heat so they do not scramble.
“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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