Why it works: Butter and milk 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.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Prepare a pie crust as for a custard pie and lay it in a pie plate.
Make the filling
In a bowl, cream together the sugar and butter.
Add the egg yolks, flour, and milk to the mixture and mix well.
Flavor the mixture with lemon extract.
Top and bake
In another bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff, then gradually add the sugar.
Spread the beaten egg whites over the pie filling.
Return the pie to the oven and bake until the top is 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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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + milktop 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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Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,053 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Butter and flour 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 filling and add richness and color as they set with the milk.
- Flour
- Thickens the milk mixture so the filling holds its shape when cut.
- Egg whites
- Beaten stiff, they form a light meringue topping that puffs and browns in the oven.
- Butter
- Adds fat and a rich flavor to the creamed base of the filling.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base of the custard filling, adding moisture and body.
The step that matters
Beating the egg whites until stiff. Egg whites must be beaten to firm peaks before the sugar is added gradually, since properly whipped foam traps air and holds the topping up. Under-beaten whites will weep or flatten, and over-beaten whites turn dry and grainy.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, egg, flour, milk):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Figfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, egg, flour, milk. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“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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