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Dessert

How We Cook in Tennessee

A sweet pie filled with a lemon custard made from eggs, sugar, lemon juice, and corn starch.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Jackson (Tenn.). First Baptist Church. The Silver Thimble Society · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 35 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

How We Cook in Tennessee

Ingredients

Directions

Make the first filling

  1. Heat until it thickens, three-quarters cup sweet milk.

  2. Combine one cup of milk, one cup of sugar, one tablespoon corn starch cooked over hot water for at least fifteen minutes, one teaspoon salt, the yolks of three eggs and the white of one egg, grated rind and juice of one lemon.

  3. Fill the paste while hot and bake quickly.

Make the meringue topping

  1. Beat the whites of two eggs stiff.

  2. Add slowly two tablespoons of sifted powdered sugar.

  3. Spread over the pie as soon as it comes out of the oven and return it to dry and brown slightly.

Make the second pie

  1. To one pie, combine one lemon, one cup sugar, one cup water, yolks of two eggs, two teaspoons corn starch, butter the size of a walnut.

  2. Use whites of eggs for frosting.

  3. Take four eggs, one and one-half cups sugar, two-thirds cup of water, two tablespoons of flour, juice of large lemon.

  4. Beat well yolks of eggs.

  5. Add sugar, lemon, flour and water in the order named.

  6. Bake on a bottom crust.

Finish the remaining pies

  1. Make the top of the four whites, whipped to a stiff froth, adding four tablespoons of sugar. Brown quickly.

  2. For three pies, combine six eggs beaten separately, two cups white sugar, juice of two lemons, butter the size of an egg, one cup buttermilk and a bit of soda.

  3. Add well beaten whites last.

  4. Use yolks of six eggs, one and one-half cups sugar, whites of two eggs, butter the size of an egg, melted, juice of one lemon.

  5. Make meringue of four whites and four heaping tablespoons sugar, flavored with lemon.

  6. Stir together the yolks of six eggs, four teacups of sugar, one tablespoon butter, two teacups of milk, the juice and grated rinds of four lemons, four tablespoons of corn starch.

  7. Bake on paste.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

845Calories
28 gProtein
26 gFat
124 gCarbs

Counts 7 of 9 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 7 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Waternot in our table0
Pienot 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 Jackson (Tenn.). First Baptist Church. The Silver Thimble Society. 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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Flour + buttermilktop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,721 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Sugar + buttermilktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,973 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Milk + corntop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,955 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

  5. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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 set the filling, while whites whip into a stiff, airy topping.
Corn starch
Thickens the liquid filling so it holds its shape when cut.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps the meringue whip and brown.
Lemon
Provides the sharp acidity and citrus aroma that define the filling.
Butter
Adds richness and a smoother, softer texture to the filling.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the thickened filling is built on.

The step that matters

Thickening the filling over heat. Cornstarch must be heated long enough to swell and thicken fully, or the filling stays runny. Overheating or stirring too hard can break the starch down and thin it again.

Swap the lemon

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, sugar, corn, flour, buttermilk, butter, 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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