Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Caramel 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
In a saucepan, combine dark brown sugar, sweet milk, flour, butter, salt, and egg yolks.
Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens.
Flavor to taste, then pour into a pie crust.
Top and bake
Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form and spread over the top of the pie.
Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) until the meringue is golden.
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 + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
- Dark brown sugar
- Provides the caramel sweetness and deep color of the filling.
- Flour
- Thickens the milk mixture so the filling sets smoothly.
- Egg yolks
- Thicken the custard and add richness to the filling.
- Sweet milk
- Forms the liquid base that the sugar and yolks cook into a custard.
- Egg whites
- Whip into a stiff foam that forms the meringue topping and browns in the oven.
The step that matters
Cooking the filling until it thickens. Stirring constantly over medium heat keeps the egg yolks and flour from scorching or lumping, and the filling must be thick enough to hold its set once cooled.
“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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