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 Pie
Ingredients
Directions
Make the custard
Scald the milk in a saucepan.
In a small bowl, wet the cornstarch with a little cold milk.
Beat the egg yolks and sugar until light and fluffy.
Stir the cornstarch mixture and the egg mixture into the hot milk.
Flavor with lemon or vanilla and set aside to cool.
Bake and top
Line a pie plate with the pie crust and bake until golden.
For the frosting, beat the egg whites and add 1 tablespoon of sugar until stiff peaks form.
Spread the frosting on the pie and brown it lightly.
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 + 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).
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 base of the custard, providing liquid and body for the filling.
- Cornstarch
- Thickens the custard as it heats, giving it a smooth, sliceable set.
- Egg yolks
- Add richness and help thicken the custard while adding color and flavor.
- Egg whites
- Whip into a foam that forms the light, stable frosting, which browns on top.
The step that matters
Stir the cornstarch mixture and the egg mixture into the hot milk. Cornstarch thickens only when heated, so the hot milk must be stirred constantly while the mixtures are added to avoid lumps and to let the starch gelatinize evenly into a smooth custard.
“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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