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Bread

Lemon Pie with Bread

A lemon pie made by soaking bread in boiling water, butter, lemon zest and juice, sugar, eggs, baked with a crust and meringue.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Evora Bucknum Perkins · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 22,662 recipes. Both carry (e)-2-octenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Lemon Pie with Bread

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut off crusts from a medium‑sized, brick‑shaped loaf of bread and slice it into ½‑inch thick pieces.

Make the filling

  1. Pour boiling water over the slices, add 1 level tablespoon of butter, and beat with a fork until the bread is smooth.

  2. Stir in 3 tablespoons of butter, grated lemon rind, lemon juice, 1 scant cup sugar, and beaten egg yolks.

Bake and top

  1. Bake the mixture in a crust and top with a meringue made from egg whites.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

582Calories
19 gProtein
6 gFat
108 gCarbs

Counts 3 of 4 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 3 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
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 Evora Bucknum Perkins. 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. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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

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

  3. Bread + sugartop 32% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,638 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Bread
Soaked in boiling water, it thickens the filling into a soft, spreadable body.
Eggs
Yolks enrich and set the filling, while whites whip into the meringue topping.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps the meringue stay glossy and stable.
Butter (in the method)
Adds fat for richness and a smoother, more tender texture.
Lemon juice (in the method)
Adds acidity that brightens the sweet filling and balances its richness.

The step that matters

Beat the soaked bread until smooth. Boiling water softens the bread's starch and crumb; beating it fully breaks up lumps so the filling bakes evenly and has a uniform texture.

“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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