Why it works: Nutmeg and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,318 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓
Custard Pie
Ingredients
Directions
Make the custard
Scald the water or milk in a saucepan.
In a bowl, beat the yolks of the eggs, then add the sugar, butter, and a pinch of salt.
Dissolve the cornstarch in a small amount of water, then mix it with the egg mixture.
Pour the egg mixture slowly into the boiling water or milk, stirring constantly.
Assemble and finish
For lemon pie, add the juice of 2 lemons and omit the nutmeg.
For currant or raisin custard, add 1 cup of currants or stewed raisins.
Pour the mixture into a pie crust and cover with a top crust.
To make a meringue, beat the egg whites until stiff, then add 2 tablespoons of sugar.
Spread the meringue over the top of the pie and brown 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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Nutmeg + lemontop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together11,318 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,053 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + nutmegtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together14,685 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Butter + nutmegtop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together24,377 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Eggs
- Yolks thicken the custard when heated, and whites form the meringue topping.
- Cornstarch
- Starch thickens the liquid into a smooth, sliceable custard as it heats.
- Butter
- Adds fat for a richer, softer texture and flavor in the custard.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the custard and helps stabilize the meringue when whipped.
- Water or milk
- Forms the liquid base that the eggs and starch thicken into custard.
The step that matters
Pouring the egg mixture into the hot liquid. Adding the eggs too fast or without constant stirring can scramble them into lumps. Stirring while pouring slowly tempers the eggs so the custard thickens smoothly.
Swap the lemon
The recipe marks lemon as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, butter, sugar, nutmeg, egg):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
- Raisinfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, butter, sugar, nutmeg, egg. 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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