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Dessert

Vanilla Cream Pie

A pie with a vanilla custard filling topped with meringue and optional shredded coconut.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Vanilla and coconut match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,294 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Vanilla Cream Pie

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Butter a pie dish.

  2. In a saucepan, heat the milk until it reaches a boiling point.

  3. In a bowl, mix the sugar, egg yolks, and cornstarch with a little cold water until smooth.

  4. Add the mixture to the boiling milk and cook for five minutes, stirring constantly.

  5. Remove from heat and let cool, then stir in the vanilla extract.

  6. If desired, fold in shredded coconut into the filling.

Top and bake

  1. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form, then gradually add 1/4 cup sugar.

  2. Spread the beaten egg whites over the pie filling, sprinkle with coconut, and brown 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. Vanilla + coconuttop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,294 recipes

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

  2. Walnut + coconuttop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together606 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).

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

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

  4. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

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

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

Egg yolks
Thicken the custard and add richness as they cook with the milk.
Cornstarch
Thickens the milk mixture into a smooth, sliceable custard when heated.
Egg whites
Whipped into a stiff foam that forms the topping and browns in the oven.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard filling.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and stabilizes the whipped egg white topping.

The step that matters

Cook the custard while stirring constantly. Cornstarch thickens only when the mixture boils, and stirring keeps the egg yolks from scrambling or sticking to the pan while it cooks.

Swap the coconut

The recipe marks coconut as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, sugar, egg, vanilla, butter, walnut):

  1. Figfits about as well
  2. Coconutthe original
  3. Peachfits less well
  4. Blueberryfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, sugar, egg, vanilla, butter, walnut. 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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