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Dessert

Cheese Pie

A baked cheese pie made with milk, rice, cheese, eggs, butter, salt, and cayenne pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Cheese Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the custard base

  1. Heat the milk in a saucepan until hot.

  2. Mix the ground rice with a little cold milk, then pour the hot milk over it.

  3. Return the mixture to the pan and stir until it thickens.

  4. Remove from heat and add the grated cheese, salt, cayenne, egg yolks, and butter. Mix well.

Bake and serve

  1. Fold in the beaten egg whites gently.

  2. Butter a pie dish and pour the mixture into it.

  3. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 20 minutes.

  4. Sprinkle grated cheese over the top before serving.

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 + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Milk + ricetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,374 recipes

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

  3. Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Milk + cheesetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,426 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Rice + peppertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,379 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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 the ground rice thickens into a smooth custard.
Ground rice
Thickens the hot milk so the mixture sets into a body rather than staying runny.
Egg yolks
Enrich the custard and help it set when baked.
Egg whites
Whipped and folded in to lighten the mixture and add rise and airy texture.
Finely grated cheese
Adds rich savoury flavour and fat, and helps the custard set.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth, tender texture.

The step that matters

Folding in the beaten egg whites. Egg whites hold air only while whipped; stirring them vigorously deflates the foam and loses lift. Folding gently keeps the air in, so the pie rises and stays light.

“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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