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Dessert

Pennsylvania Cheese Pie

A custard cheese pie topped with meringue, baked until set and lightly browned.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and cheese are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,426 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Pennsylvania Cheese Pie

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the crust

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Bake the pie crust until golden brown.

Make the custard

  1. In a bowl, whisk together milk, eggs, and sugar until well combined.

  2. Pour the hot custard into the baked crust.

  3. Sprinkle grated cheese over the custard.

  4. Return to the oven and bake until set.

Make the meringue and finish

  1. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites with sugar until soft peaks form.

  2. Spread the meringue over the pie and return to the oven to brown slightly.

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

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

  2. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

  3. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

  4. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

  5. Egg + cheesetop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,253 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

Eggs
Egg proteins set the custard into a sliceable, firm filling as it bakes.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard, giving it a soft, tender texture.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and helps stabilize the whipped egg white meringue.
Egg whites
Whipped into a foam that forms a light, airy meringue topping that browns in the oven.
Grated cheese
Adds savory flavor and richness to the custard.

The step that matters

Bake the custard until set. Egg proteins coagulate as the custard heats, firming it into a sliceable filling. Underbaked custard stays runny and won't hold its shape, while overbaking can make it curdle, grainy, or weep liquid.

“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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