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Lemon Pie

A lemon custard pie topped with a sweet meringue.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,227 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Lemon Pie

Ingredients

Directions

Make the filling

  1. Beat together sugar, egg yolks, a pinch of salt, and butter in a bowl.

  2. Combine boiling water and grated lemon rind in a saucepan.

  3. Dissolve cornstarch in a little water and add it to the boiling mixture.

  4. Let the mixture come to a boil.

  5. Remove the mixture from heat.

  6. Stir in the sugar, egg mixture, and lemon juice.

Bake and top

  1. Prepare a pie crust.

  2. Pour the filling into the crust.

  3. Bake the pie until set.

  4. Remove the pie from the oven.

  5. Beat the egg whites with a little sugar until stiff peaks form.

  6. Spread the meringue over the pie.

  7. Return the pie to the oven and brown the meringue slightly.

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 + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Egg + lemontop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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

Cornstarch
Thickens the lemon filling as it heats, giving it a set, sliceable body.
Egg yolks
Thicken the filling and add richness and a custard-like texture.
Egg whites
Whipped into meringue, they form a light, airy topping that browns in the oven.
Lemon juice
Adds the sharp acidity that balances the sweetness of the filling.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps stabilise the whipped egg white meringue.
Butter
Adds fat for smoothness and a rich flavour to the filling.

The step that matters

Let the mixture come to a boil. Cornstarch only thickens fully once it reaches a boil, so the filling must be brought there before removing it from heat. Otherwise it may stay thin and fail to set.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Lemonthe original
  3. Raisinfits about as well
  4. Figfits about as well

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