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Dessert

Cream Meringue Pie

A pie filled with a cooked corn starch and sugar custard topped with meringue.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Vanilla and milk 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 Meringue Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the custard

  1. Mix corn starch, sugar, egg yolks, vanilla extract, and milk in a saucepan.

  2. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until it boils for about 5 minutes.

Assemble and bake

  1. Line a pie plate with pastry.

  2. Fill the pastry with the cream mixture.

  3. Bake in a moderate oven (350°F / 175°C).

Meringue and serve

  1. Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks.

  2. Gently mix in powdered sugar.

  3. Spread the meringue on top.

  4. Return to the oven just long enough to color the top.

  5. Serve warm or cold.

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. Vanilla + milktop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Corn + vanillatop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,943 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  5. Corn + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,955 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

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

Egg yolks
Thicken the cream filling and add richness and color to the custard.
Corn starch
Thickens the milk mixture into a smooth, sliceable cream filling when boiled.
Egg whites
Whipped into stiff peaks to form the airy, stable meringue topping.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness and flavor in the pastry.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the cream filling.
Powdered sugar
Dissolves easily into the whites to sweeten and stabilize the meringue.

The step that matters

Boiling the cream filling. Starch only thickens fully once it reaches a boil and is stirred constantly, so stopping early or letting it scorch leaves a runny or lumpy filling. Stirring keeps heat even and prevents the starch from settling on the pan bottom.

“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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