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Dessert

Banana Cream Pie

A custard pie with banana slices and meringue topping.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Banana and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,430 recipes. Both carry ethyl isobutyrate, which smells fruity, ethereal. The science ↓

Banana Cream Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the crust

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Line a pie pan with the crust and bake until golden.

  3. Cover the bottom of the baked crust with the banana slices.

Make the custard

  1. In a double boiler, combine milk, cornstarch dissolved in a little milk, egg yolks, and vanilla extract.

  2. Boil until thickened, then pour the custard into the pie crust.

Top and bake

  1. Beat the egg whites until stiff, adding sugar if desired, then spread over the custard.

  2. Return to the oven until the top is golden brown.

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. Banana + vanillatop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,430 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  2. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  3. Vanilla + sugartop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

  4. Banana + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,470 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  5. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Vanilla and sugar 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

Egg yolks
Thicken the custard and add richness and a yellow colour to the filling.
Cornstarch
Thickens the milk mixture into a smooth, sliceable custard as it heats.
Egg whites
Whipped into a stiff foam that forms a light topping and browns in the oven.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard that the cornstarch and yolks thicken.
Bananas
Add fruity sweetness and flavour layered beneath the custard.

The step that matters

Boil until thickened. Cornstarch only thickens fully once it reaches a boil, and the yolks must be cooked through without scrambling. Stirring constantly over direct heat or a double boiler keeps the custard smooth and properly set.

Swap the banana

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

  1. Figfits better
  2. Peachfits about as well
  3. Blueberryfits about as well
  4. Bananathe original

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