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 ↓
Cream Pie
Ingredients
Directions
Make the custard
Beat together the sugar, egg yolks, and cornstarch in a bowl.
Bring the milk to a boil in a saucepan.
Stir the egg mixture into the boiling milk.
Add a pinch of salt.
Cook until thickened.
Top and bake
Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks.
Add 2 tablespoons of sugar to the beaten egg whites.
Pre-bake the pie crust.
Pour the thickened mixture into the crust.
Spread the beaten egg whites over the top.
Brown in the oven.
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 add richness as they cook with the milk.
- Cornstarch
- Thickens the milk mixture into a sliceable custard when heated.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base of the custard that thickens into filling.
- Egg whites
- Whipped to stiff peaks to form a meringue topping that browns in the oven.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the custard and helps the meringue whites hold their stiff peaks.
The step that matters
Cook until thickened. Cornstarch must reach a full boil with the custard to gel fully; undercooked starch leaves a runny filling that will not hold a slice.
“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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