Why it works: Milk and egg 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 ↓
Custard 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.
Make the custard
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a bowl, beat the egg yolks and mix in the milk, sugar, salt, and flavoring.
Pour the mixture into a pie crust and bake until set.
Make the meringue
While the pie is baking, beat the egg whites until frothy.
Add 1 tablespoon of fine white sugar to the egg whites and beat again until stiff peaks form.
Finish and brown
Once the pie is done, spread the frosting over the top and return to the oven to brown.
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 + eggtop 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
- Proteins set as they heat, thickening the milk into a sliceable custard.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base that the egg proteins set into a smooth custard.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the whipped egg whites hold their foam.
- Egg whites
- Whipped into a foam that gives the topping its light, airy structure.
The step that matters
Bake the custard until just set. Egg proteins firm as they heat. Overbaking tightens them too far, causing the custard to crack, weep liquid, or turn grainy.
“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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