Why it works: Milk and egg 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 ↓
Cream Pie
Ingredients
Directions
Make the filling
Dissolve cornstarch in a little cold milk.
In a saucepan, heat the milk.
Stir in the dissolved cornstarch and beaten egg yolks.
Cook until thick and smooth, then remove from heat.
Add sugar, salt, and flavoring; mix well.
Assemble and bake
Pour the filling into a pre-baked pie crust.
Top with meringue made from beaten egg whites and brown slightly in the oven.
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 + 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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Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 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
- Cornstarch
- Thickens the milk into a smooth, sliceable custard when heated.
- Egg yolks
- Add richness and help thicken the custard as it cooks.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base of the custard filling.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and balances the flavor of the filling.
- Egg whites
- Whipped into the meringue topping, which sets and browns in the oven.
The step that matters
Cook until thick and smooth, then remove from heat.. Cornstarch must be heated to boiling and cooked for a moment to fully thicken; stopping too early leaves a thin, starchy filling, while overcooking can cause scorching or lumps.
“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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