Why it works: Milk and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Cream Pie
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Make the filling
Combine milk, egg yolks, and flour in a saucepan, moistening the flour with the yolks.
Sweeten the mixture to taste and bring it to a boil.
Assemble and bake
Prepare an under-crust in a pie dish.
Pour the cream mixture into the crust.
Beat the egg whites until stiff and sweeten with 6 teaspoons of sugar.
Spread the egg white mixture over the top of the pie.
Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven until the top is light brown.
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 + flourtop 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).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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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).
Milk and flour 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
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base of the custard filling that sets when heated.
- Egg yolks
- Thicken the cream filling and add richness as they set with heat.
- Flour
- Thickens the milk mixture so the cream filling holds its shape when cut.
- Egg whites
- Whipped into a stiff foam that bakes into a light, airy topping.
The step that matters
Bringing the cream mixture to a boil. The flour starch must be fully heated to swell and thicken the filling; undercooked starch leaves the cream thin and runny. Stir constantly so the egg yolks do not scramble on the bottom of the pan.
“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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