Why it works: Sugar and cream 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 ↓
Real Cream Pie
Ingredients
Directions
Make the filling
In a saucepan, combine maizena and boiling water until thickened.
Stir in sugar and cream until well mixed.
Assemble and serve
Pour the mixture into the pre-baked pie crust.
Allow the pie to cool completely before serving.
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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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Maizena (cornstarch)
- Thickens the mixture into a smooth, sliceable filling when heated with liquid.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the filling and adds body to its flavour.
- Cream
- Adds richness and fat, giving the filling a softer, silkier texture.
The step that matters
Thickening the maizena with boiling water. Cornstarch only thickens fully when its starch granules are hydrated and heated to a boil; stirring until it is clearly thick ensures the filling sets properly when cooled.
“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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