Why it works: Milk and corn are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,955 recipes. Both carry hexanal, which smells green, grassy. The science ↓
Lemon Pie
Ingredients
Directions
Make the filling
Mix the lemon rind, lemon juice, sugar, and egg yolks together in a bowl.
In a saucepan, thicken the milk with corn starch and bring it to a boil.
Stir the hot milk mixture into the lemon mixture until well combined.
Pour the filling into a pie crust and bake until set.
Top and brown
Beat the egg whites with 1 tablespoon of sugar until frothy.
Spread the egg white mixture over the top of the pie and return it to the oven for a few seconds to brown.
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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Milk + corntop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,955 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
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Lemon + corntop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,927 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Lemon + milktop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,053 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Lemon and sugar 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
- Egg yolks
- Thicken the filling and add richness to the custard.
- Corn starch
- Thickens the hot milk so the filling sets smoothly.
- Egg whites
- Whip into a light topping that browns in the oven.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the filling and balances the sharpness of the lemon.
- Lemon
- Provides the tart, aromatic flavor of the filling.
The step that matters
Stir the hot milk into the lemon mixture until well combined. Adding hot milk too fast or without thorough stirring can scramble the egg yolks, leaving lumps instead of a smooth custard. Stirring steadily while pouring keeps the yolks evenly tempered and the filling silky.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, egg, milk, corn):
- Vanillafits better
- Coconutfits better
- Figfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, milk, corn. 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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