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Dessert

Buttermilk Pie

A custard pie made with buttermilk, egg yolks, butter, flour, sugar, and nutmeg, topped with meringue.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Buttermilk Pie

Why it works: Flour and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,623 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Buttermilk 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.

Prepare

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

  2. Line pie tins with the pie crust.

Make the filling

  1. In a bowl, combine buttermilk, egg yolks, butter, flour, and sugar. Mix well.

  2. Pour the buttermilk mixture into the crust.

  3. Bake in the preheated oven until set.

Add the meringue

  1. Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.

  2. Spread the beaten egg whites on top of the pie.

  3. Return the pie to the oven to brown the meringue.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Buttermilk + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,721 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Buttermilk + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,973 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Buttermilk
Provides tangy acidity and moisture that gives the filling its custard-like body.
Egg yolks
Set during baking to thicken the filling into a sliceable custard.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth, tender texture in the filling.
Flour
Thickens the filling and helps it hold its shape as it sets.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps it set into a smooth, firm texture.
Egg whites
Whipped to stiff peaks to form the airy meringue topping that browns in the oven.

The step that matters

Bake the filling until set. Underbaking leaves the egg-thickened filling runny, while overbaking can make the egg proteins curdle and weep, so the filling should just firm up before the meringue goes on.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (buttermilk, egg, butter, flour, sugar):

  1. Cinnamonfits about as well
  2. Nutmegthe original
  3. Jalapenofits about as well
  4. Capersfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against buttermilk, egg, butter, flour, sugar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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