Why it works: Cream and sugar 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 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the crust
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Line a deep pie tin with the pie crust, prick it with a fork, and ensure it extends over the edges.
Bake the crust until lightly golden.
Make the filling
In a double boiler, combine the cream, sugar, and salt. Heat until scalding hot.
Mix the cornstarch with a small amount of cold milk until smooth, then add to the hot cream mixture.
Cook until the mixture is smooth, then gradually stir it into the well-beaten eggs.
Bake and serve
Pour the filling into the baked crust and sprinkle cinnamon on top.
Return to the oven and bake until the filling thickens.
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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Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together30,779 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Cream + eggtop 24% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together42,166 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
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Cream + cinnamontop 28% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together4,510 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).
Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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
- Eggs
- Set the custard as they cook and thicken the filling.
- Sweet cream
- Provides richness and the liquid base of the filling.
- Cornstarch
- Thickens the cream mixture so the filling holds its shape when cut.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and balances the richness of the cream and eggs.
The step that matters
Gradually stir the hot cream into the eggs. Adding hot liquid to eggs too quickly can scramble them. Adding it slowly while stirring gently raises the egg temperature so the custard thickens smoothly.
Swap the cinnamon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, sugar, egg):
- Nutmegfits better
- Cinnamonthe original
- Tarragonfits less well
- Gingerfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against cream, sugar, egg. 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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