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 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Make the batter
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a bowl, sift together the flour and cream of tartar.
Dissolve the baking soda in the sweet cream and add it to the flour mixture.
Beat the eggs and sugar together, then combine them with the flour mixture.
Pour the batter into a cake tin.
Bake and cool
Bake until golden.
Let the cake cool.
Split the cake in half.
Make the custard and assemble
For the custard, boil the yolks of 2 eggs, 1 cup sugar, and 1 pint sweet milk gently until thickened.
Flavor the custard to taste.
Spread the custard between the cake layers.
Sprinkle the top with powdered sugar.
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).
-
Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
-
Egg + flourtop 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
- Eggs
- Provide structure and richness as the batter sets, and yolks thicken the custard.
- Flour
- Forms the structure of the cake crumb as it sets in the oven.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acid in cream of tartar to release gas, helping the cake rise.
- Cream of tartar
- Acidic ingredient that reacts with baking soda to leaven the batter and stabilizes texture.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps give it a tender crumb and golden browning.
- Sweet milk
- Provides liquid and richness, and thickens with the yolks to form the custard.
The step that matters
Gently cooking the custard. Egg yolks thicken the custard as they heat, but too much heat can curdle or scramble them. Cooking gently and stirring keeps the custard smooth and properly thickened.
“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.