Why it works: Milk and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Cream Pie
Ingredients
Directions
Make the custard
In a bowl, beat together the egg yolks, sugar, and flour.
Heat the milk in a saucepan until boiling.
Pour the hot milk into the egg mixture, stirring constantly until thickened.
Bake and top
Pour the mixture into the baked pie crust and bake until set.
Beat the egg white until stiff peaks form, then flavor with extract.
Spread the flavored egg white over the top of 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.
-
Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
-
Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
-
Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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
- Thicken the custard and add richness as they set with heat.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the custard and helps keep the yolks tender.
- Flour
- Stabilizes the custard and helps it thicken smoothly without curdling.
- Egg white
- Whipped into stiff peaks to form a light topping that sets when baked.
The step that matters
Pour the hot milk into the egg mixture, stirring constantly until thickened.. Adding hot milk too fast or without constant stirring can scramble the egg yolks. Constant stirring spreads the heat evenly so the starch and yolks thicken the custard smoothly.
“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.
More cream pie recipes
You might also like
White Cake431 recipes
Pound Cake373 recipes
Orange Bundt Cake349 recipes
Spice Cake344 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.