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
Make the custard
Mix the cornstarch with 3 tablespoons of milk.
Scald the remaining milk over hot water.
Stir in the cornstarch mixture.
Cook for 10 minutes.
Beat the egg yolks with the sugar and salt until lemon colored.
Stir the egg yolk mixture into the milk mixture.
Cook for 15 more minutes, stirring occasionally to keep smooth.
Cool slightly.
Add the vanilla.
Pour into a large baked pie crust.
Make the meringue and finish
Beat the egg whites until stiff and dry.
Beat in the sugar and vanilla.
Drop spoonfuls of meringue on the pie.
Brown lightly in the oven.
If the pie cannot go in the oven, drop the meringue on a pan of hot water.
Brown in the oven.
Transfer to the pie.
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 + vanillatop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,187 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
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Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together35,032 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base of the custard that thickens when heated.
- Egg yolks
- Enrich the custard and help it thicken and set as it cooks.
- Cornstarch
- Thickens the milk mixture into a smooth, sliceable filling when cooked.
- Egg whites
- Whipped into foam to form the airy, stable meringue topping.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the custard and stabilizes the whipped egg white meringue.
The step that matters
Cook the custard until thick, stirring to keep it smooth. Cornstarch thickens only when the mixture reaches a full boil, and stirring prevents the egg yolks and starch from lumping or scorching on the bottom of the pan.
“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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