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Dessert

Cream Pie

A pie with a custard-like cream filling made from eggs, sugar, flour, milk, butter, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 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 ↓

Cream 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.

Make the sponge

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

  2. In a bowl, mix 4 eggs, 1 cup sugar, 1 cup flour, 1½ teaspoons baking powder, and ¼ teaspoon salt.

  3. Divide the batter into two pie tins.

  4. Bake until golden.

Make the cream

  1. For the cream, whisk together 2 eggs, 1 cup sugar, ½ cup flour, and ⅔ pint milk in a saucepan.

  2. Add a small piece of butter.

  3. Cook over medium heat, stirring until thickened.

  4. Flavor with vanilla.

  5. Let cool.

Assemble

  1. Once the pies are cold, split them.

  2. Fill with the cream.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Cream + buttertop 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
Set the cream and give the sponge structure as they coagulate and trap air.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the sponge and thickens the cream.
Sugar
Sweetens the pie and tenderizes the sponge texture.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter so the sponge rises and becomes light.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the cream, adding moisture and richness.

The step that matters

Cooking the cream until thickened. Flour and egg proteins must be heated with the milk while stirring constantly, otherwise the mixture can lump or scorch on the bottom of the pan. Thickening happens as starch swells and proteins set, so the cream needs to reach a full simmer before it firms up when cooled.

“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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