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Dessert

A Miniature Second Edition of a Pie

A small pie filled with lemon custard and topped with frothy icing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and corn are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and 5,839 recipes mention both. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

The recipe

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Contains: egg, wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the pastry

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. In a bowl, rub lard and salt into flour.

  3. Add cold water gradually until the mixture binds together.

  4. Knead the dough minimally and roll it out thin.

  5. Line greased gem or patty pans with the pastry. Pinch the edges. Prick with a fork.

  6. Bake until golden brown.

Make the filling

  1. For the filling, mix grated lemon, sugar, egg yolk, cold water, and corn-starch in a saucepan.

  2. Cook over medium heat, stirring until it becomes a smooth jelly.

Assemble and finish

  1. Fill the baked tart shells with the lemon mixture.

  2. Whip the egg white with sugar until frothy.

  3. Ice the tarts.

  4. Return the tarts to the oven for 1 minute to set the icing.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Flour + corntop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together5,839 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Flour + eggtop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together104,138 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Lemon + corntop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,926 recipes

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

  4. Lemon + eggtop 9% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together43,327 recipes

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

  5. Lemon + sugartop 10% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together53,530 recipes

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

Flour and egg share little aroma chemistry, yet 104,138 recipes mention both: they likely 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

Lard
Shortens the pastry, making it tender and flaky rather than tough.
Flour
Forms the pastry structure that holds the shell together when baked.
Lemon
Provides the sharp acidity and aroma that flavour the filling.
Egg yolk
Enriches the filling and helps it thicken into a rich, smooth custard.
Corn-starch
Thickens the lemon mixture into a smooth jelly when heated.
Egg white
Whipped with sugar to make a light, frothy icing that browns in the oven.

The step that matters

Cooking the lemon filling until smooth. Cornstarch thickens only when the mixture reaches a boil while stirred. Stopping too early leaves it runny, while overheating or not stirring can scorch it or form lumps.

Flavor stand-ins for the lemon

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

  1. Vanillabetter flavor fit
  2. Raisinbetter flavor fit
  3. Blueberryabout as good a flavor fit
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, sugar, egg, corn. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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