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 ↓
Cream Pie— No. 2
Ingredients
Directions
Make the filling
Beat the egg yolks and sugar together until well combined.
Add the sweet milk, butter, and cornstarch or flour, and mix well.
Cook the mixture in a double boiler until creamy.
Assemble and bake
Fill the baked pie crust with the creamy filling.
Beat the egg whites until stiff, sweeten to taste, and spread on top of the pie.
Set the pie in the oven to 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 + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + flourtop 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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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter and flour 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
- Egg yolks
- Enrich the custard and help it thicken as it cooks, giving a rich texture.
- Cornstarch or flour
- Thickens the milk mixture as it cooks, giving the filling a creamy body.
- Egg whites
- Whipped into a stiff topping that sets and browns in the oven.
- Granulated sugar
- Sweetens the filling and helps stabilise the egg yolks while beating.
The step that matters
Cooking the filling in the double boiler. Starch needs to reach a simmer to thicken fully, but gentle heat keeps the egg yolks from scrambling. Stir steadily and cook until the filling is creamy and coats a spoon.
“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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