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Cream Raspberry Pie

A pastry pie filled with sweetened raspberries and topped with a creamy milk and egg white custard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk 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 ↓

Cream Raspberry Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA good oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a good oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Assemble and bake

  1. Line a pie dish with puff pastry and fill it with sweetened raspberries.

  2. Cover with a pastry crust, leaving the edges unsealed, and rub the edge with butter to prevent sticking.

  3. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven.

Make the cream

  1. In a small saucepan, heat ½ cup of rich milk with a pinch of baking soda.

  2. In a separate bowl, mix 1 tablespoon of cornstarch with cold milk.

  3. Stir the cornstarch mixture into the heated milk along with 1 tablespoon of sugar.

  4. Cook for three minutes.

  5. Remove from heat and beat in the frothed egg whites until creamy.

Finish and serve

  1. Once the pie is baked, lift the top crust and pour in the cream mixture.

  2. Replace the crust and let it cool.

  3. Sift powdered sugar on 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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

  5. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 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

Puff pastry
Forms a flaky, sturdy crust that holds the filling and the cream.
Raspberries
Supply the fruit filling, with tartness balanced by the sweetening.
Rich milk
Forms the base of the cream, adding richness and body.
Cornstarch
Thickens the cream as it heats, giving it a set, sliceable texture.
Egg whites
Whipped into the cream to add lightness and help it set.

The step that matters

Cook the cornstarch mixture fully. Cornstarch granules only swell and thicken the milk when heated while stirred. If the mixture is not cooked for the full time, the cream stays thin and may not set once it cools.

“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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