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Dessert

Whipped Cream Pie

A pie made with a batter of eggs, sugar, flour, milk, cream of tartar, baking soda, topped with whipped cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Whipped 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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare the pies

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Beat the eggs and sugar until light and fluffy.

  3. Gradually add the flour, milk, cream of tartar, and baking soda, mixing until smooth.

  4. Divide the batter between two pie pans.

Bake and finish

  1. Bake for 25-30 minutes.

  2. While the pies cool, whip the thick cream with powdered sugar and vanilla until stiff peaks form.

  3. Spread the whipped cream over the cooled pies.

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 + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Flour + vanillatop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,241 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Eggs
Beaten with sugar to trap air, giving the pies a light, airy structure.
Flour
Provides the starch and gluten framework that sets the batter into a sponge-like crumb.
Cream of tartar
Acidifies the batter, stabilizing the foam and helping the baking soda react for lift.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic cream of tartar to release gas that makes the batter rise.
Thick cream
Whipped into stiff peaks to form the rich, airy topping that holds its shape.

The step that matters

Whipping the thick cream to stiff peaks. Cream must be whipped just until stiff peaks form; overwhipping forces fat globules together and turns it grainy or buttery, while underwhipping leaves a topping that slumps on the cooled pies.

“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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