Why it works: Egg and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 88,785 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Custard 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 the custard
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a bowl, combine the egg yolks, milk, and salt. Mix well to create a custard.
Pour the custard mixture into a pie crust and bake until set.
Make and add the meringue
In another bowl, beat the egg whites until frothy.
Gradually add the sugar to the egg whites and continue beating until stiff peaks form.
Spread the meringue over the top of the pie and brown it in the oven.
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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Egg + milktop 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).
Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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 milk into a set custard as they coagulate when heated.
- Milk
- Provides the liquid base that the egg yolks set into a custard.
- Egg whites
- Whipped into foam that forms the airy, stable meringue topping.
- Sugar
- Stabilizes the whipped egg whites and adds sweetness to the meringue.
The step that matters
Bake the custard until set. Underbaked custard stays runny because egg proteins have not fully coagulated; overbaked custard can weep or curdle as proteins tighten and squeeze out liquid. Watch for a just-set center.
“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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