Why it works: Egg and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 88,785 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Custard Pie
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Make the custard
In a bowl, mix the yolks of 3 eggs, 1 egg white, sugar, milk, salt, and flavoring until well combined.
Pour the custard mixture into a pie crust.
Bake and brown
Bake in the hot oven for a few minutes, then reduce the heat to 350°F (175°C) and continue baking until the custard is set.
Beat the 2 egg whites to a froth, add 1 tablespoon of sugar, and spread over the top of the custard.
Return to the oven to brown the meringue.
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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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).
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Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 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
- Thicken the custard and add richness and a smooth set.
- Eggs
- Set the custard so it holds its shape when sliced.
- Milk
- Provides the liquid base that the eggs set into custard.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the custard and helps the meringue become stable.
- Egg whites
- Whipped into a foam that forms the meringue topping.
The step that matters
Baking the custard at two temperatures. Starting hot and then lowering the heat helps the custard set gently. Too much heat can make eggs curdle or turn the custard watery and grainy.
“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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