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 ↓
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 filling
Scald the milk in a double boiler.
Add the egg yolks, sugar, butter, and flour to the scalded milk.
Pour the mixture into a prepared deep pie crust.
Make the meringue and bake
Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks.
Gradually add 2 tablespoons of sugar to the beaten whites.
Spread the meringue over the pie filling.
Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven until the meringue is delicately browned.
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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Egg + flourtop 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
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base of the custard filling, giving it body and a creamy texture.
- Egg yolks
- Thicken the filling as they set with heat, giving it a rich, smooth structure.
- Egg whites
- Whipped into stiff peaks, they form the airy meringue topping that browns in the oven.
- Flour
- Stabilizes the custard by thickening the milk so it holds its shape when cut.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the filling and, in the meringue, helps the whites hold stable peaks.
The step that matters
Scalding the milk in a double boiler. Heating the milk gently, without boiling, helps the flour and yolks thicken the custard smoothly. Overheating or boiling can cause the eggs to curdle or make the filling 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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