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Dessert

Cheese Pie

A baked cheese pie made with milk, rice, cheese, eggs, butter, salt, and cayenne pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Cheese Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the filling

  1. Heat the milk in a saucepan until hot.

  2. Mix the ground rice with a little cold milk.

  3. Pour the hot milk over the rice mixture.

  4. Return the mixture to the pan and stir until thickened.

  5. Remove the pan from heat.

  6. Add the grated cheese, salt, cayenne pepper, egg yolks, and butter to the mixture. Mix well.

  7. Fold in the beaten egg whites gently.

Bake and serve

  1. Butter a pie dish.

  2. Pour the mixture into the pie dish.

  3. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 20 minutes.

  4. Sprinkle grated cheese on top before serving.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Milk + ricetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,374 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Milk + cheesetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,426 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Rice + peppertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,379 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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 filling and keeps the custard moist and tender.
Ground rice
Thickens the hot milk into a stable base that supports the filling.
Finely grated cheese
Adds rich flavour and fat, and helps the filling set as it cools.
Egg yolks
Enrich the filling and help it set into a creamy texture.
Egg whites
Lighten the mixture and help it rise and set in the oven.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth, tender texture.

The step that matters

Return the mixture to the pan and stir until thickened. The ground rice must be cooked in the hot liquid until it thickens, because starch only swells and thickens fully with heat. Undercooked rice leaves a grainy, thin filling.

“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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