Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
Cream Pie
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a quick oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare
Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C).
Make and bake the crust
Beat egg whites and yolks separately until well combined.
Add sugar to egg yolks and mix well.
Sift flour, baking soda, and cream of tartar together, then add to egg mixture.
Pour batter into four pie tins and bake until golden.
Make the custard and assemble
For the cream, make a custard by cooking milk, eggs, and corn starch in a double boiler.
Wet corn starch with a little milk before adding it to the mixture.
Stir custard until thickened, then flavor to taste.
Once cooled, spread custard between two layers of baked crust.
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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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Milk + corntop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,955 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
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Flour + corntop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,165 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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
- Flour
- Provides the structure that holds the baked layers together.
- Eggs
- Add structure and richness, and thicken the custard as they cook.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the crust brown and stay tender.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acid in the batter to produce gas that lifts the crust.
- Milk
- Supplies the liquid that makes the custard smooth and moist.
- Corn starch
- Thickens the custard as its starch swells when heated in liquid.
The step that matters
Wet the corn starch before adding it to the custard. Dry starch clumps when it meets hot liquid, because the outside of each granule swells and seals off the inside. Mixing it first with a little cold milk spreads the granules evenly so the custard thickens smoothly.
“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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