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Dessert

Butter Scotch Pie

A sweet pie with a butter and sugar filling topped with meringue.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Butter Scotch Pie

Ingredients

Directions

Make the filling

  1. Mix butter, brown sugar, and flour together in a bowl.

  2. Add hot water, sweet milk, salt, and well-beaten egg yolks to the mixture.

  3. Place the mixture in a double boiler and cook until thick, stirring constantly.

  4. Once thick, remove from heat, stir well, and pour into a previously baked pie shell.

Top and bake

  1. Sprinkle 2 teaspoons of flour in the bottom of the pie shell and rub it in gently to prevent a moist crust.

  2. Make a meringue with the two egg whites and spread it on top of the pie.

  3. Bake the pie in the oven for about 12 minutes to set the meringue.

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Brown sugar
Provides sweetness and the caramel-like butterscotch flavor.
Flour
Thickens the filling as it cooks to a smooth, sliceable custard.
Egg yolks
Enrich and thicken the custard, giving it body and richness.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, contributing to the buttery flavor.
Sweet milk
Supplies liquid and creaminess to the filling.

The step that matters

Cooking the filling until thick. Starch in the flour must be fully cooked in hot liquid to thicken properly. Stirring constantly in a double boiler prevents scorching and lumps, and the custard sets as it cools.

“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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