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
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
In a saucepan, combine egg yolks, flour, sugar, milk, and butter.
Cook over medium heat, stirring until thickened like custard.
Flavor to taste and pour into a pre-baked pie crust.
Top and bake
In a bowl, beat egg whites until soft peaks form, then gradually add 2 tablespoons of sugar.
Spread the meringue over the pie filling.
Brown the pie in a 350°F (175°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 + 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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Flour + milktop 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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Egg + flourtop 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
- Egg yolks
- Thicken the custard and add richness as they set with heat.
- Flour
- Thickens the milk mixture so the custard holds its shape when cut.
- Egg whites
- Whipped into a foam that forms the meringue topping, which browns in the oven.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the custard and helps stabilize the whipped egg whites.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base that thickens into the custard with the flour and yolks.
The step that matters
Cooking the custard until thickened. Stir constantly over medium heat. Flour starch and egg yolk proteins thicken the mixture only once it is hot enough, and overheating can scorch the milk or curdle the yolks.
“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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