Name: Self Frosting Lemon Pie
Ingredients: one cup sugar; one tablespoonful flour; one-half cups milk; two eggs; one lemon; two eggs beaten stiff

Why it works: Flour and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Self Frosting Lemon Pie

Ingredients

Directions

Make the filling

Cream together one cup sugar, one tablespoon flour, and butter the size of an egg.
Add beaten yolks of two eggs, lemon juice and grated rind of one lemon, and one and one-half cups milk.
Stir in lightly the whites of two eggs beaten stiff.

Bake

Pour into a good-sized pie plate lined with pastry.
Bake in a moderate oven to a beautiful brown.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

743Calories

28 gProtein

15 gFat

124 gCarbs

What these numbers assume: 5 portions

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Flour	1 cup (125g) all-purpose	455
Milk	1 cup (244ml) whole	149
Egg	1 large egg (50g)	78
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Lemon	juice of 1 lemon (48ml)	12

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

By Friday club, Yarmouth, Mass. [from old catalog]. 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.

Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together19,053 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together106,462 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + lemontop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together30,404 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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

Eggs: Yolks enrich and thicken the custard, while whipped whites lighten it.
Sugar: Sweetens the filling and balances the sharpness of the lemon.
Flour: Thickens the filling so it sets rather than running when cut.
Milk: Adds moisture and body to the custard base.
Lemon: Provides acidity and aroma from the juice and grated rind.

The step that matters

Stir in the beaten egg whites lightly. Whites hold air only when whipped stiff, and vigorous stirring deflates them, leaving a dense, flat topping instead of a light, airy one.

Swap the lemon

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

Vanillafits better
Raisinfits better
Figfits better
Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, flour, milk, 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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Lemon Ice147 recipes

Lemon Sherbet103 recipes

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Self Frosting Lemon Pie