Why it works: Milk and corn are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,955 recipes. Both carry hexanal, which smells green, grassy. 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 filling
Combine milk, sugar, and egg yolks in a saucepan.
Cook over medium heat until thickened.
Stir in corn starch until well mixed.
Pour the mixture into the baked pie crust.
Make the meringue and bake
Beat egg whites until stiff peaks form.
Gradually add 2 tablespoons sugar and continue beating until glossy.
Spread the meringue over the pie filling.
Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) until the meringue is light 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 + corntop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,955 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
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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).
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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Sugar + corntop 21% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together7,168 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Milk and sugar 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
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base that thickens into the custard filling.
- Egg yolks
- Thicken the filling as they set with heat and add richness.
- Corn starch
- Swells when heated, helping the milk thicken into a firm filling.
- Egg whites
- Whipped into a foam that forms the light topping of the meringue.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the filling and helps stabilize the whipped meringue.
The step that matters
Cooking the filling until thickened. Starch granules swell and egg yolk proteins set as the mixture heats, which is what thickens the custard. Stopping too early leaves the filling runny, and overheating can cause the yolks to curdle or turn grainy.
“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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