Why it works: Milk and peach work together. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 781 recipes. Both carry phellandrene, which smells minty. The science ↓
Plain Custard Pie
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Make the custard
Boil the milk with the peach leaves or lemon rind until flavored.
Strain the milk and return it to the heat.
Mix the flour with 2 tablespoons of milk until smooth, then stir it into the boiling milk.
Boil for 1 minute while stirring constantly, then remove from heat.
Let it cool, then add the beaten eggs and sweeten to taste.
Bake
Pour the mixture into deep pie plates and bake in a 400°F (200°C) 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 + peachtop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together781 recipes
Shared aroma: phellandrene (minty).
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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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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Peach + sugartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,308 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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
- Flour
- Thickens the milk into a smooth, set custard base when boiled while stirring.
- Eggs
- Set during baking to give the custard its firm, sliceable structure.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base of the custard and carries the flavor from the leaves or rind.
The step that matters
Boiling the flour mixture while stirring constantly. Flour must be whisked smooth and kept moving while boiling so it thickens evenly without lumps. Boiling it for a full minute also cooks out the raw starch taste.
Swap the peach
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, flour, egg, sugar):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Figfits better
- Peachthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, flour, egg, 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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