Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Buttermilk Pies
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.
Make the custard
In a saucepan, combine buttermilk, cream of tartar, sugar, flour, and butter.
Cook over medium heat until it thickens into a custard.
Pour the custard into pie crusts.
Make the meringue and bake
For the meringue, beat egg whites until stiff, gradually adding sugar until thick.
Spread meringue over the pies and bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for a few minutes until browned.
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 + buttertop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Buttermilk + flourtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,721 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Buttermilk + sugartop 9% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,973 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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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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Buttermilk + creamtop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together674 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Buttermilk
- Provides the liquid and tangy flavor that gives the custard its body and acidity.
- Flour
- Its starch swells with heat and thickens the buttermilk mixture into a custard.
- Eggs
- Whites whip into a foam that holds air and sets into the meringue topping.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the filling and helps stabilize the whipped egg white meringue.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and a smoother, more tender custard texture.
- Cream of tartar
- Acidifies egg whites, helping the meringue foam stay stable and stiff.
The step that matters
Cooking the custard until thickened. Flour starch only thickens fully when heated enough, but over-high heat or insufficient stirring can scorch the bottom or leave lumps, so the custard should be cooked 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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