Why it works: Lemon and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 30,404 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Ohio Lemon Pie
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Pare the lemon and cut it into thin slices.
Place the lemon slices in the lower pie crust.
Make and bake the pie
Mix the flour thoroughly with the maple syrup.
Pour the mixture over the lemon slices.
Cover with the top crust and bake until the filling is thick.
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.
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.
-
Lemon + flourtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together30,404 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Maple syrup + flourtop 24% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,034 recipes
Shared aroma: eugenol (clove, spicy).
-
Maple syrup + lemontop 33% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together325 recipes
Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Maple syrup
- Provides the main sweetness and liquid body of the filling.
- Flour
- Thickens the syrup as it heats, giving the filling its set.
- Lemon
- Adds sharp acidity and fragrant citrus aroma that balance the sweet syrup.
The step that matters
Mix the flour thoroughly with the maple syrup. Flour is a starch that thickens only when evenly dispersed. If it stays in clumps, it leaves pockets of raw flour and uneven thickening in the baked filling.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (maple syrup, flour):
- Raisinfits better
- Pumpkinfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against maple syrup, flour. 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.
More lemon pie recipes
You might also like
Lemon Cake228 recipes
Lemon Ice147 recipes
Lemon Sherbet103 recipes
Lemon Custard64 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.