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Dessert

Cieam Pie

A custard pie thickened with corn starch, topped with a sugar meringue and browned in the oven.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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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 ↓

Cieam Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the custard

  1. Preheat your oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. In a bowl, beat the egg yolks, sugar, and corn starch together.

  3. Bring the milk to a boil, then stir in the egg mixture.

  4. Add the butter and salt, mixing well.

Bake and fill

  1. Bake your pie crust until golden, then fill it with the custard mixture.

  2. Bake again until set.

Top with meringue

  1. For the meringue, beat the egg whites to stiff peaks, adding sugar gradually.

  2. Spread the meringue over the custard and brown in the oven.

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

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

  2. Milk + corntop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,955 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

  3. Corn + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,345 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Yolks thicken the custard and whites whip into the meringue for structure.
Corn starch
Thickens the milk mixture into a smooth, sliceable custard as it heats.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and helps stabilize the meringue as it whips.
Sweet milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard, which sets as the starch and yolks cook.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth mouthfeel to the custard.

The step that matters

Bring the milk to a boil, then stir in the egg mixture. Corn starch only thickens fully when it reaches a boil, and the yolks need to be tempered first so they do not scramble. Stirring keeps the custard smooth and lump-free.

“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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