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, combine the egg yolks and milk.
Season the mixture with coarse sea salt to taste.
Pour the mixture into a pie crust.
Bake the crust in the hot oven until set.
Reduce the oven temperature to 350°F (175°C).
Top and brown
Beat the egg whites until frothy.
Add sugar to the egg whites and mix it in.
Spread the egg white mixture over the custard.
Return the pie to the oven to brown 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 as they set, giving it a rich, firm texture.
- Milk
- Provides the liquid base that the egg yolks set into a smooth custard.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps stabilise the beaten egg white topping.
The step that matters
Reduce the oven temperature to 350°F (175°C). Egg custard sets gently at lower heat. Staying at the hot 400°F setting can overcook the custard, causing it to weep or turn grainy, while the topping still needs time to brown.
“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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