Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
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.
Prepare the cake layers
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Beat the egg whites to a stiff froth.
In a separate bowl, mix the sugar with the egg yolks.
Sift the flour with the baking soda and cream of tartar.
Add the sifted flour mixture to the egg mixture.
Pour the batter into four pie tins.
Bake the batter until golden.
Make the custard
Heat the milk in a dish placed in hot water.
Rub the cornstarch smoothly with a little milk.
Add the cornstarch mixture to the hot milk.
Beat together the eggs and sugar in a bowl.
Stir the beaten eggs and sugar into the hot milk.
Cook the mixture until thickened.
Flavor the custard to taste.
Assemble
Spread the custard between two layers of the baked crust.
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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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Cream + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together29,399 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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
- Flour
- Forms the structure of the baked layers once the batter sets.
- Eggs
- Whites trap air for lift, and yolks and whole eggs thicken the custard and set it.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the batter and custard and helps the layers brown.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with cream of tartar to produce gas that helps the batter rise.
- Cream of tartar
- Acidifies the batter, stabilizing whipped egg whites and helping the leavening react.
- Milk
- Provides the liquid base of the custard that thickens as it cooks.
- Cornstarch
- Thickens the hot milk into a smooth custard when heated.
The step that matters
Cook the custard until thickened. Cornstarch thickens only when the mixture reaches a boil, and egg proteins can scramble if it gets too hot too fast. Stir constantly and cook gently until it coats a spoon.
“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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