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Lemon Cream Meringue Pie

A lemon cream pie topped with a dry meringue that sets in the oven.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Margaret Brown · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 2 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 122,807 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Lemon Cream Meringue Pie

Ingredients

Directions

Make the meringue

  1. Whip the 4 whites of eggs to a dry froth.

  2. Gently incorporate 1 cupful sugar.

Finish and bake

  1. Spread the meringue over the top of the pie.

  2. Return to the oven to set until a fawn color.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

127Calories
6 gProtein
5 gFat
13 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 2 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49

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

By Margaret Brown. 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. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 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

Egg whites
Whipped into a foam that traps air, giving the meringue its light, airy structure.
Sugar
Stabilizes the whipped foam and adds sweetness, helping the meringue stay glossy and hold its shape.

The step that matters

Return to the oven to set until a fawn color. Meringue sets through gentle heat, and overbaking dries it out, toughens it, and can make the sugar scorch, while underbaking leaves it soft and prone to weeping.

“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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