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Dessert

Whipped Cream Pie

A pie filled with a custard of egg yolks, flour, sugar, butter, milk, and heavy cream, topped with whipped cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Whipped Cream Pie

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. In a double boiler, combine egg yolks, flour, sugar, and butter.

  2. Add milk and cook until thick, stirring frequently.

  3. Pour the mixture into a baked pie crust and allow to cool.

Top and serve

  1. Before serving, whip the heavy cream until thick.

  2. Flavor the whipped cream with vanilla and sweeten to taste.

  3. Spread the whipped cream over the cooled pie as a topping.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

  1. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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
Thicken the custard and add richness and a yellow color.
Flour
Thickens the milk mixture so the custard sets firm when cooled.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and balances the richness of the yolks and cream.
Butter
Adds fat for a smoother, richer custard texture.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the thickened custard is built on.
Heavy cream
Whipped into air bubbles to make a light, fluffy topping.

The step that matters

Cooking the custard until thick. Flour and egg yolks thicken only when the mixture is heated enough, but overheating can curdle the eggs. Stirring often in a double boiler spreads heat gently so the custard thickens smoothly.

“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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