Why it works: Lemon and apple are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,551 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓
Lemon Pie
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Grate the rind and strain the juice of the lemons.
Core, peel, and finely chop the apple.
Crush the cracker into fine crumbs. Melt the butter and mix it with the cracker crumbs.
Make the filling
Combine the lemon rind, juice, chopped apple, and sugar in a bowl.
Beat the egg yolks until thick and frothy, then beat the egg whites until stiff.
Gently fold the beaten yolks and whites into the lemon, apple, and sugar mixture. Mix in the buttered cracker crumbs.
Bake
Fill pie plates with the mixture, creating a broad rim around the edges.
Bake for 20 minutes at 350°F (175°C) or until the crust is done.
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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Lemon + appletop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,551 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Apple + buttertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,706 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Lemon + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,227 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Eggs
- Whipped yolks and whites add lightness and help the filling set when baked.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the filling and balances the sharpness of the lemon juice.
- Lemons
- Rind and juice supply the main tart, aromatic flavour of the pie.
- Soft cracker
- Crumbs with melted butter form the base that gives the pie its crust.
- Tart apple
- Adds moisture and body to the filling along with a fruity tartness.
- Butter
- Melted into the cracker crumbs, adding fat and richness to the crust.
The step that matters
Folding the beaten egg yolks and whites. Folding gently keeps the air beaten into the eggs, so the filling stays light instead of deflating and becoming dense when baked.
Swap the apple
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lemon, butter, sugar, egg):
- Vanillafits better
- Orangefits better
- Raspberryfits better
- Applethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against lemon, butter, sugar, egg. 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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