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
In a saucepan, combine sweet milk, sugar, flour, and salt.
Add butter and beaten egg yolks, then cook over medium heat until thickened.
Assemble and top
Bake pastry shells until golden.
Pour filling into baked shells.
Beat egg whites until stiff peaks form and spread over the filling.
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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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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
- Egg yolks
- Thicken the custard and add richness and colour as they set with heat.
- Flour
- Thickens the milk mixture so the custard holds its shape when cooled.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the custard filling.
- Egg whites
- Whipped to stiff peaks, they form a light topping that spreads over the filling.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness to the custard.
The step that matters
Cooking the custard until thickened. Heat must be kept moderate and the mixture stirred so the flour starches swell and the egg yolks set smoothly without scorching or curdling. Undercooked custard stays runny, while overheating can curdle the yolks.
“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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