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Dessert

Washington Pie

A custard pie with a buttery crust and sweet filling.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and vanilla 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 ↓

Washington Pie

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Make the cake layers

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a bowl, cream together the sugar, egg, and butter.

  3. Mix in the flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, and salt until combined.

  4. Pour the batter into a pie dish and bake for 25-30 minutes.

Make the filling

  1. For the filling, combine milk, egg yolks, flour, and sugar in a double boiler.

  2. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until thickened.

  3. Remove from heat and flavor with vanilla.

Assemble and serve

  1. Once the pie crust is baked, pour the filling into it and let cool before serving.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

  1. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

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

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

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

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

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

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
Bind the batter and, as yolks, thicken the custard filling.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness and rich flavor in the batter.
Flour
Provides the structure for the batter and thickens the custard filling.
Cream of tartar
Acidifies the batter and works with baking soda to help it rise.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acid in the batter to produce gas that lightens it.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard, adding moisture and richness.

The step that matters

Stirring the filling constantly until thickened. Egg yolks can scramble or curdle if they overheat. Constant stirring over gentle heat keeps the custard smooth while the starch and yolk proteins thicken it.

“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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