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Dessert

Homemade Lemon Meringue Pie

A pie with a pastry crust filled with lemon custard and topped with a whipped egg white meringue.

From the Recipes Wiki (Fandom) · 18 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and butter match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and 41,197 recipes mention both. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

The recipe

Oven425 °F (220 °C), then 325 °F (160 °C)
Time33 minutes

Ingredients

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

Directions

Make the pastry

  1. Mix flour, sugar, and salt in a bowl.

  2. Cut in margarine until coarse crumbs form.

  3. Add water, tossing until pastry comes together.

  4. Roll pastry out on a floured surface to a 13‑inch circle.

  5. Roll pastry up on a rolling pin, then unroll into a 9‑inch pie plate.

  6. Fit pastry into the plate.

  7. Roll the edge under for a stand‑up edge, then flute it.

  8. Chill for 30 minutes.

Bake the crust

  1. Heat oven to 425 °F (220 °C).

  2. Prick the crust all over with a fork.

  3. Line the crust with foil and fill with dried beans.

  4. Bake for 15 minutes.

  5. Remove the foil and beans.

  6. Bake for 10 minutes or until the edge is golden.

Make the lemon filling

  1. Grate 2 tablespoons of rind and squeeze ¾ cup of juice from the lemons.

  2. Mix sugar, cornstarch, and salt in a saucepan.

  3. Stir in water and lemon juice.

  4. Cook, stirring, until thickened and bubbly.

  5. Cook for another 3 minutes, stirring.

  6. Remove from heat.

  7. Beat the yolks in a bowl.

  8. Stir in ½ cup of the hot lemon mixture.

  9. Cook, stirring, for 1 minute (do not overcook).

  10. Off the heat, add butter and rind.

  11. Pour the mixture into the crust.

Top with meringue and bake

  1. Heat oven to 325 °F (160 °C).

  2. Beat 8 egg whites and cream of tartar in a bowl until foamy.

  3. Beat in ¾ cup of sugar until stiff peaks form.

  4. Spoon the meringue over the filling, spreading to the edge of the crust.

  5. Bake for 33 minutes.

  6. Refrigerate for 1 hour.

Recipe from the Recipes Wiki (Fandom).

This recipe comes from the Recipes Wiki on Fandom and is licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Our formatting and summaries are shared under the same licence.

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

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. Lemon + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together41,197 recipes

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

  2. Butter + creamtop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together41,494 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Sugar + creamtop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together43,437 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Flour + buttertop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together122,858 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Egg + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together118,511 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

Flour and butter share little aroma chemistry, yet 122,858 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

Flour
Forms the gluten network that gives the pastry its structure.
Margarine
Fat coated into the flour creates flaky, tender layers in the pastry.
Cornstarch
Swells with heat and thickens the lemon filling so it sets when cooled.
Lemons
Juice provides the sharp acidity and rind adds bright aroma to the filling.
Egg yolks
Thicken the filling and add richness when gently cooked.
Egg whites
Whipped with sugar, they trap air to form a stable, airy meringue.

The step that matters

Cook the filling briefly after adding the yolks. Egg yolks can scramble and curdle if overheated, which makes the filling grainy and can cause weeping. Cooking for only about one minute, stirring constantly, thickens it smoothly.

“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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