Why it works: Egg and milk 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 ↓
Pie Plant Pie
Ingredients
Directions
Make the filling
Stew the pie plant until soft and sweeten it well.
Press through a colander or sieve.
In a bowl, mix the strained pie plant with the yolks of three eggs and ½ cup of milk.
Bake and finish
Pour the mixture into a prepared pie crust.
Bake until set, then cover with meringue and brown lightly.
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 + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Rhubarb + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,852 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
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Sugar + milktop 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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Rhubarb + milktop 22% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together294 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Sugar and milk 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
- Pie plant (rhubarb)
- Provides the tart flavour and most of the moisture in the filling.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the filling and balances the tartness of the pie plant.
- Eggs
- Yolks thicken the filling as they heat, helping it set into a custard.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and richness, softening the custard's set.
- Meringue
- Forms a soft topping that browns lightly in the oven.
The step that matters
Bake until set. The egg yolks and milk thicken as they heat. Underbaking leaves a runny custard, while overbaking can make it weep and turn grainy.
Swap the rhubarb
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, egg, milk):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Nutmegfits better
- Gingerfits about as well
- Rhubarbthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, milk. 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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