Why it works: Milk and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 88,785 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Cornstarch Pie
Ingredients
Directions
Make the custard
Mix cornstarch with a little milk.
Boil the remaining milk.
Beat the egg yolks and add the cornstarch mixture.
Stir in the boiled milk and add sugar.
Bake and brown
Pour into a pie crust and bake.
Beat the egg whites with 2 tablespoons of sugar and spread on top of the pie.
Return to the oven and brown the top.
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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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base that the starch and egg thicken into a custard.
- Eggs
- Egg yolks thicken the custard, and beaten whites form the topping.
- Cornstarch
- Thickens the hot milk so the custard sets into a sliceable filling.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the custard and helps the beaten egg whites hold a stable foam.
The step that matters
Browning the egg white topping. Beaten egg whites with sugar form a foam that can weep or toughen if over-baked, while under-baked topping stays pale and soft. Watch it closely and stop once the peaks are lightly golden.
“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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