Why it works: Apricot and red currant work together. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 58 recipes. Both carry isoamyl acetate, which smells banana, pear. The science ↓
Cream Pie
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Make the cream filling
Pour the cream into a bowl and add the powdered sugar.
Let the mixture sit until the egg whites are beaten to stiff peaks.
Fold the beaten egg whites into the cream mixture and mix thoroughly.
Grate a little nutmeg over the mixture.
Pour the mixture into two pie crusts without upper crusts and bake at 400°F (200°C) until set.
Make and fill the tartlets
For tartlets, roll out puff pastry thinly and cut into 2½ inch squares.
Brush each square with egg white, fold the corners to the center, and press together.
Brush the tops with egg white, sprinkle with sugar, and bake at 400°F (200°C) for about 15 minutes.
Once baked, make a small hole in the center of each tartlet and fill with apricot jam, marmalade, or red currant jelly.
Arrange the tartlets on a napkin and garnish with the same preserve.
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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Apricot + red curranttop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together58 recipes
Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
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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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Cream + nutmegtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,920 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
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Nutmeg + apricottop 13% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together207 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Nutmeg + red curranttop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together67 recipes
Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Cream
- Forms the rich, soft body of the filling once set.
- Powdered sugar
- Sweetens the filling and dissolves easily into the cream.
- Egg whites
- Whipped to stiff peaks, they lighten the filling and help it set.
- Puff pastry
- Bakes into flaky, layered crust for the tartlets.
- Apricot jam
- Adds sweetness and fruity flavor to the filled tartlets.
The step that matters
Beating the egg whites to stiff peaks. Stiff peaks trap air that gives the filling its lightness. Under-whipped whites collapse, and over-mixing after folding deflates the foam, so the pie may bake dense or weepy.
Swap the red currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, sugar, egg, nutmeg, apricot):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Peachfits better
- Red currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against cream, sugar, egg, nutmeg, apricot. 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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