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Dessert

Cream Raspberry Pie

A pie with a puff pastry crust filled with raspberries and a creamy milk and egg white topping.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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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 ↓

Cream Raspberry Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA good oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a good oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the pie

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Line a pie dish with puff pastry.

  3. Fill the pastry with raspberries, sweetened with ½ cup sugar.

  4. Cover with a pastry crust, leaving the edges unpinched.

  5. Rub the edge of the lower crust with butter.

  6. Bake in the oven until golden.

Make the cream filling

  1. While the pie is baking, heat 1 cup of milk with a pinch of baking soda.

  2. Stir in 2 tablespoons of cornstarch mixed with cold milk and 1 tablespoon of sugar.

  3. Cook the mixture for 3 minutes.

  4. Remove from heat and beat in the frothed egg whites until creamy.

  5. Let the mixture cool.

Assemble and serve

  1. Once the pie is baked, lift the top crust and pour in the cream mixture. Replace the crust.

  2. Let the pie cool before serving.

  3. Dust the top with sugar.

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 + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  2. Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Sugar and milk 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

Puff pastry
Forms a flaky, crisp shell that holds the filling and browns in the oven.
Raspberries
Supply the fruit flavour and moisture, and their sugar sweetens the filling.
Cornstarch
Thickens the milk mixture as it cooks, giving the cream a set, spoonable body.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the cream, which thickens with the starch.
Egg whites
Beaten in to add airiness and lightness to the cream.
Sugar
Sweetens the raspberries and the cream, and balances the tartness of the fruit.

The step that matters

Cooking the cream mixture for the full 3 minutes. Cornstarch only thickens fully once the mixture is hot enough to swell its starch granules. If it is undercooked, the cream stays thin and can taste starchy or raw.

“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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