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Dessert

Lemon Fie Filling

A cooked lemon filling thickened with corn starch, baked in a pie crust and topped with meringue.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By North End Club (Chicago, Ill.) · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Corn and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,927 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Lemon Fie Filling

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Beat together the juice of 2 lemons, grated rind of 1 lemon, yolks of 2 eggs, 1 1/4 cups sugar, and 2 tablespoonfuls corn starch, slightly rounded.

  2. Add 1 cup of boiling water after the other ingredients have been thoroughly beaten together.

  3. Cook until clear.

  4. Have the pie crust baked before filling.

  5. Whites of 2 eggs for the meringue on pie.

  6. Stir one tablespoonful corn starch into a little cold water.

  7. Add 1 cup of boiling water and let it come to a boil.

  8. Add 7 tablespoonfuls of sugar, yolks of 4 eggs, and grated rind and juice of 2 lemons.

  9. Bake with a bottom crust.

  10. Beat the whites of the 4 eggs with 2 tablespoonfuls of sugar.

  11. Cover the top of the pie and brown slightly.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

594Calories
20 gProtein
7 gFat
112 gCarbs

Counts 4 of 5 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 4 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Waternot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By North End Club (Chicago, Ill.). 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. See the original page.

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. Corn + lemontop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,927 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Lemon + eggtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

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

  4. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

  5. Sugar + corntop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,168 recipes

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

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

Corn starch
Thickens the filling as it cooks with the boiling water.
Eggs
Yolks enrich and thicken the filling; whites whip into the meringue topping.
Lemons
Juice and rind supply the sharp, bright acidity that flavours the filling.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps stabilise the meringue.

The step that matters

Cook until clear. Corn starch only thickens fully once the mixture reaches a boil and its granules swell. Stopping early leaves the filling runny or cloudy, so it should be cooked until it turns clear and thick.

Swap the lemon

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, corn, 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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