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 ↓
Custaed Pie
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the custard
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
In a bowl, mix the egg yolks with the milk and season with coarse sea salt.
Pour the custard mixture into the pie crust.
Bake and top
Bake in a hot oven until heated.
Move to a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) to bake slowly.
Beat the egg whites until frothy.
Add sugar and spread the frothy egg whites over the top.
Return to the oven to brown slightly.
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 custard and enrich it, giving it a smooth, set texture when baked.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base of the custard, providing moisture that the egg proteins set into a creamy filling.
- Egg whites
- Whipped into a frothy topping that bakes to a light, lightly browned layer over the custard.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the topping and promotes browning when the meringue-style layer returns to the oven.
The step that matters
Baking the custard slowly. Egg custard sets through gentle heat; if the oven is too hot the egg proteins tighten quickly, leading to a curdled, watery texture. Moving to the moderate oven lets the custard set evenly.
“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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