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Dessert

Ceeam Pie

A custard pie with a buttery crust, lemon rind, and sweet cream filling.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 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 ↓

Ceeam 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.

Prepare the batter

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a bowl, mix powdered sugar, flour, cream of tartar, and baking soda.

  3. Beat the egg whites until stiff.

  4. Fold the stiff egg whites into the mixture with the egg yolks and grated lemon rind.

Make the custard

  1. Heat the milk in a double boiler until scalding hot.

  2. In a separate bowl, mix ½ cup sugar, a little salt, and 1 egg.

  3. Stir the egg mixture into the hot milk until thick.

  4. Once the mixture cools, add vanilla and set aside.

Assemble and bake

  1. Prepare a pie crust and place it in a pie plate.

  2. In another bowl, mix butter, ⅔ cup sugar, sweet cream, and 1 tablespoon flour.

  3. Pour the butter mixture into the pie crust.

  4. Bake until set.

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. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

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

  5. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

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

Eggs
Whites trap air for lightness, while yolks and the whole egg thicken and enrich the filling.
Cream of tartar
Acidifies the egg whites, helping them whip stiffer and hold their foam.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acid in the batter to produce gas, helping it rise.
Flour
Provides structure as the batter and filling set during baking.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard that the eggs thicken.
Butter
Adds fat, which gives richness and a tender texture to the filling.

The step that matters

Stir the egg mixture into the hot milk until thick. Egg proteins thicken the custard but scramble if overheated or added too fast. Stirring constantly over the double boiler keeps the custard smooth.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Figfits better
  2. Coconutfits better
  3. Raisinfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

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