Why it works: Egg and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 122,807 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Custard Pie
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).
Make the custard
In a bowl, beat the 4 eggs without separating the whites.
Add the sugar, salt, and water to the eggs and mix well.
Pour the mixture into a pie crust.
Bake and save
Bake slowly, being careful not to let it whey.
Save the white of one egg for frosting.
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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Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Eggs
- Set the custard as they cook, giving it structure and a rich body.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and balances the savory richness of the eggs.
- Water
- Thins the egg mixture so it bakes into a smooth, pourable custard that sets softly.
The step that matters
Bake slowly. Egg proteins set gently at low heat. Baking too hot makes them tighten and squeeze out liquid, so the custard weeps whey and turns grainy instead of smooth.
“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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