Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
Cream Pie
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the crust
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Beat the egg whites to a stiff froth.
Add the sugar to the egg whites, then sift in the flour with the baking soda and cream of tartar.
Pour the mixture into four pie tins and bake until golden.
Make the custard
For the custard, cook the milk in a double boiler.
In a bowl, mix the eggs, cornstarch (wet with a little milk), and sugar.
Stir the egg mixture into the boiling milk and flavor to taste.
Assemble
Once cooled, spread the custard between two layers of the baked crust.
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.
-
Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
-
Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
-
Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Cream + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together29,399 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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
- Flour
- Provides the structure that holds the baked crust layers together.
- Egg whites
- Beaten to a foam, they trap air that lightens the crust.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the cream of tartar to produce gas that helps the crust rise.
- Cornstarch
- Swells with heat and thickens the milk into a smooth custard.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base of the custard and adds moisture and richness.
- Eggs
- Their proteins set when heated, giving the custard body.
The step that matters
Stir the egg mixture into the boiling milk. Egg proteins set with heat and cornstarch thickens as it heats, so constant stirring keeps the custard smooth and stops the eggs from clumping or scrambling.
“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.
More cream pie recipes
You might also like
White Cake431 recipes
Pound Cake373 recipes
Orange Bundt Cake349 recipes
Spice Cake344 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.