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Dessert

13. Lemon Pie Filling.

A lemon pie filling made with sugar, cornstarch, eggs, lemon juice, rind, butter, and a touch of salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Helen Kinne and Anna M. Cooley · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and walnut match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,149 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

13. Lemon Pie Filling.

Ingredients

Directions

Make the filling

  1. Mix the starch with the cold water, add the boiling water and cook until it thickens, and add the butter and sugar.

  2. Beat the egg (or yolks) and add the other ingredients.

  3. Add the lemon last.

Top and brown

  1. When the pie is done, if two yolks were used, beat the whites with a tablespoonful of powdered sugar, place on the top, and brown in a moderate oven.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

722Calories
21 gProtein
21 gFat
112 gCarbs

Counts 7 of 8 ingredients. The other 1 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
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Walnut1 walnut half (4g)26
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
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 Helen Kinne and Anna M. Cooley. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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. Lemon + walnuttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,149 recipes

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

  2. Butter + walnuttop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,832 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Lemon + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

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

  4. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Cornstarch
Thickens the filling as it cooks with the hot water, giving it body.
Eggs
Add richness and help set the filling, while the whites can form a browned meringue topping.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and balances the acidity of the lemon.
Lemon
Adds acidity and bright flavor that contrasts with the sugar.
Butter
Adds fat for smoothness and rich flavor in the filling.

The step that matters

Cooking the starch with the water until it thickens. Starch only thickens fully once it reaches a boil and its granules swell. Stopping early leaves the filling thin and runny, while adding the lemon before the filling has thickened can make it thin out further.

Swap the walnut

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

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Pistachiofits about as well
  3. Walnutthe original
  4. Milletfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, lemon, butter. 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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