Why it works: Milk and corn are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,955 recipes. Both carry hexanal, which smells green, grassy. The science ↓
Cream Pie
Ingredients
Directions
Make the custard
Scald the milk in a saucepan.
Wet the corn starch with a little cold milk.
Beat the egg yolks and sugar until light and fluffy.
Stir the corn starch mixture and the egg mixture into the scalding milk.
Flavor with lemon or vanilla and set aside to cool.
Bake and assemble
Line a pie plate with the pie crust and bake until golden.
Fill the baked crust with the cream mixture.
Beat the egg whites until stiff, then gradually add 2 tablespoons of sugar.
Spread the frosting over the cream and bake until lightly browned.
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 + corntop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,955 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
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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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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Corn + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together7,168 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 of the cream filling.
- Corn starch
- Thickens the milk mixture into a set, sliceable cream.
- Egg yolks
- Enrich the cream and help it set with added richness.
- Egg whites
- Whipped into a stiff meringue that forms the topping and browns in the oven.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cream and helps the meringue hold its structure.
The step that matters
Stir the cornstarch and egg mixture into the scalding milk. Cornstarch thickens only when heated, and the yolks can scramble if added too fast to hot milk. Add slowly while stirring to keep 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.
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