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Corn Starch Pie

A custard pie made with corn starch, milk, eggs, and sugar, topped with meringue.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Corn Starch 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 custard

  1. Combine corn starch, milk, egg yolks, and sugar in a saucepan.

  2. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until thickened like custard.

  3. Pour the custard into deep plates.

Bake the pie

  1. Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) until set.

  2. Beat egg whites until stiff peaks form.

  3. Gradually add 3 tablespoons of sugar and continue beating until glossy.

  4. Spread the meringue over the baked custard.

  5. Brown lightly in the oven.

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. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Corn + vanillatop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,943 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  4. Corn + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,955 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

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

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

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Corn starch
Thickens the milk and egg mixture into a set custard as it heats.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard and adds richness and body.
Egg yolks
Enrich and thicken the custard, adding richness and smooth texture.
Egg whites
Whip into a stiff foam that forms the meringue topping.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and, when whipped with egg whites, stabilizes the meringue.

The step that matters

Cook the custard until thick, stirring constantly. Starch granules swell and thicken only when heated enough, and stirring prevents scorching and lumps. Undercooked starch stays thin and will not set well under the meringue.

“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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