Why it works: Milk and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Cream Pie
Ingredients
Directions
Make the filling
Boil the milk in a double boiler.
Stir in the sugar, flour, and beaten egg yolks.
Flavor the mixture as desired.
Top and bake
Beat the egg whites with the sugar until stiff peaks form.
Spread the stiff egg whites over the filling.
Brown lightly in the 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 + 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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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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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).
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
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base of the custard filling.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the filling and helps stabilize the beaten egg whites.
- Flour
- Thickens the milk mixture so the filling sets firm and sliceable.
- Egg yolks
- Enrich and thicken the filling as they cook with the milk.
- Egg whites
- Whip into a stiff foam that forms the topping and browns in the oven.
The step that matters
Stir in the flour and egg yolks while the milk is hot. Flour and yolks thicken the custard only when heated enough for starch to swell and proteins to set. Adding them to a cool or scorched mixture can leave lumps or a thin filling, so keep it hot and stir steadily.
“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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