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 ↓
Custard 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 custard
Heat the milk in a tin pan set in a skillet of hot water.
In a bowl, beat the eggs, sugar, and salt together.
Pour the milk into the egg mixture and mix well.
Add flavoring to your taste.
Bake and serve
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Pour the mixture into a deep tin.
Bake slowly until set, testing with a knife to ensure it doesn't stick.
Serve as a baked custard without 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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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
- Eggs
- Set the custard into a soft structure as they cook, giving it body.
- Whole milk
- Provides the liquid base and richness that the eggs set into a custard.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and softens the set custard's flavor.
The step that matters
Bake slowly until set. Egg proteins coagulate gently at moderate heat; baking too hot or too long causes the custard to curdle, weep or become rubbery. Testing with a knife shows when it is just set.
“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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