Why it works: Milk and butter 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 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.
Make the filling
In a bowl, mix the egg yolks, sugar, milk, flour, butter, and lemon extract until smooth.
Pour the mixture into a pie crust and bake at 350°F (175°C) until set.
Make the meringue and finish
Whip the egg whites until stiff peaks form to make the meringue.
Spread the meringue over the pie and brown it 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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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Walnut + lemontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,149 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + walnuttop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,873 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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 filling as they set and add richness to the custard.
- Flour
- Thickens the milk mixture so the filling holds its shape when sliced.
- Egg whites
- Whipped into a foam that forms the meringue topping.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the filling and helps stabilise the whipped egg whites.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base of the custard filling.
The step that matters
Whip the egg whites to stiff peaks. Egg whites need to be whipped until the foam holds firm peaks; under-whipped whites will weep or slump on the pie. Any trace of fat, such as yolk, in the bowl will stop them from whipping properly.
Swap the walnut
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, milk, flour, butter, lemon):
- Almondfits better
- Pistachiofits about as well
- Milletfits about as well
- Walnutthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, milk, flour, butter, lemon. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“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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