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Dessert

Burnt Cream Pie

A custard pie made with egg yolks, brown sugar, butter, milk, cornstarch, vanilla, and baked pie crusts.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 ↓

Burnt Cream Pie

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. In a bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and brown sugar until smooth.

  2. In a saucepan, melt the butter and add the pint of milk.

  3. Dissolve the cornstarch in 1 cup of milk and add it to the saucepan.

  4. Stir the mixture over medium heat until it thickens.

  5. Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla.

Finish and fill

  1. Pour the custard into a skillet with caramelized sugar and stir until smooth.

  2. Pour the mixture into the two baked pie crusts.

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

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

  4. Butter + vanillatop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,050 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

Egg yolks
Add richness and help set the custard as it cooks.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and a deep, molasses-like flavor.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth mouthfeel.
Milk
Provides the liquid base that forms the body of the custard.
Cornstarch
Thickens the custard as its starch granules swell with heat.
Vanilla
Adds aroma that rounds out the sweet, caramel flavors.

The step that matters

Stir over medium heat until the custard thickens. Cornstarch granules swell and thicken only when heated, so the mixture must reach thickening temperature. Constant stirring prevents scorching on the pan bottom and keeps lumps from forming.

“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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