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Dessert

Bakers' Custard Pie

A baked custard pie topped with meringue.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Bakers' 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

  1. Beat the yolks of the eggs until creamy.

  2. Stir in the flour and sugar until well combined.

  3. Add the vanilla, nutmeg, and scalded milk.

  4. Mix in the melted butter.

Bake the pie

  1. Pour the mixture into a pie tin lined with pastry.

  2. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven until set.

Make and add the meringue

  1. Beat the egg whites until stiff.

  2. Gradually add sugar to the egg whites.

  3. Spread the meringue over the pie once it is done baking.

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 + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

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

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

  3. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Vanilla + nutmegtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,781 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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
Egg proteins set the custard when heated, giving it body and richness.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard and adds moisture and softness.
Flour
Starch thickens the custard and helps it hold together when cut.
Egg whites
Whipped into foam, they form the structure of the meringue topping.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps stabilise the whipped egg white meringue.
Butter
Adds fat for a smoother, richer texture in the custard.

The step that matters

Bake until set. Egg proteins in the custard coagulate with heat and firm up. Overbaking squeezes out liquid and can make the custard grainy or curdled, so take it out once it is just set.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, flour, sugar, milk, butter, vanilla):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegthe original
  3. Clovefits less well
  4. Capersfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, flour, sugar, milk, butter, vanilla. 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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