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Dessert

Cherry Custard Pie

A pie filled with cherries and a custard made from eggs, milk, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 ↓

Cherry Custard Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the filling

  1. Mix cherries, ½ cup sugar, and flour together and boil for 1 minute.

  2. Remove from heat and add butter.

  3. In a bowl, beat eggs until mixed, then add milk, scant 1 cup sugar, vanilla, and salt.

Assemble and bake

  1. Line a pie pan with flaky pastry, treating the bottom with flour.

  2. Place the cooked cherry mixture in the pie shell, then add custard by spoonfuls.

  3. Bake in a hot oven (400°F / 200°C) for the first 8 minutes, then reduce heat to bake slowly until custard is set.

Serve

  1. Serve cold.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + vanillatop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,241 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, 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

Eggs
Set the custard as they cook, giving it structure and a smooth, sliceable body.
Flour
Thickens the cherry juices so the filling holds its shape rather than running.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard, which sets gently around the egg proteins.
Cherries
Provide the main fruit flavor and tartness, with juices that mix into the filling.
Sugar
Sweetens both the cherry filling and the custard, and balances the fruit's tartness.

The step that matters

Adding the custard to the pie shell. Egg custard sets through gentle heat. Baking hot the whole time can curdle or toughen it, so the oven must be reduced after the first 8 minutes and the custard baked slowly until just set.

Swap the vanilla

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, flour, butter, egg, milk):

  1. Vanillathe original
  2. Raisinfits about as well
  3. Figfits less well
  4. Coconutfits less well

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