Why it works: Egg and milk 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 ↓
Custard Pie
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the custard
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
In a bowl, mix the egg yolks with milk and season with coarse sea salt.
Pour the custard mixture into a pie crust.
Bake and finish
Bake in the hot oven until the crust is set, then move to a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) to bake slowly.
Once done, beat the egg whites until frothy, then add sugar and spread over the custard.
Return to the oven to brown the top slightly.
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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Egg + milktop 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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Egg + sugartop 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
- Egg yolks
- Thicken the custard and enrich it, helping it set smoothly when baked.
- Milk
- Provides the liquid base that the egg proteins set into a creamy custard.
- Egg whites
- Whipped into a light foam that forms a topping which browns in the oven.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the whipped whites and helps them brown lightly on top.
The step that matters
Baking the custard in two temperatures. Egg custard sets through gentle heat; too hot an oven can curdle or puff the custard and cause cracks or a watery texture. The slower moderate bake lets the centre set evenly.
“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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