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 ↓
Mock Cream Pie
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare the crust
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Prepare a pie crust.
Bake the crust until golden.
Make the custard
Beat together the sugar, cornstarch, and egg yolks.
Bring the milk to a boil.
Stir in the egg mixture.
Add a pinch of salt and the butter.
Mix well.
Fill the baked crust with the custard mixture.
Grate nutmeg on top.
Bake again until set.
Top with meringue
Beat the egg whites until stiff.
Add 2 tablespoons of sugar gradually.
Spread the meringue over the pie.
Brown the meringue 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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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,623 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
- Eggs
- Yolks thicken the custard and whites whip into the meringue topping.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base of the custard that sets when heated.
- Cornstarch
- Thickens the custard as its starch swells in hot liquid.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the custard and stabilizes the whipped egg white meringue.
The step that matters
Cooking the custard before filling the crust. Egg yolks and starch must be heated enough to thicken the custard, but overheating can curdle the eggs. Stirring the egg mixture into hot milk gradually helps prevent lumps and scrambling. The custard should be properly set before the second bake so the filling holds its shape when sliced.
Swap the nutmeg
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, milk, sugar, flour, butter):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Nutmegthe original
- Jalapenofits less well
- Capersfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, milk, sugar, flour, butter. 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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