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Dessert

Lemon Pie

A tart crust filled with lemon custard topped with meringue.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,227 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Lemon Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the lemon filling

  1. Mix cornstarch and sugar in a bowl.

  2. Add the mixture to boiling water, stirring until thickened.

  3. Add grated lemon rind and cook for 10 minutes.

  4. Beat egg yolks until creamy.

  5. Slowly add the yolks to the cornstarch mixture, cooking for 2 more minutes.

  6. Remove from heat and stir in lemon juice and butter.

Bake the crust

  1. Line a pie pan with flaky pastry.

  2. Cover the pastry with soft paper, filling with stale bread.

  3. Bake in a moderate oven (350°F / 175°C) until crust is set.

  4. Remove paper and bread.

Assemble and bake with meringue

  1. Fill the crust with the lemon mixture.

  2. Beat egg whites until stiff.

  3. Add 2 tablespoons sugar and beat until combined.

  4. Spread meringue over the pie.

  5. Bake in a cool oven (300°F / 150°C) until lightly browned.

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.

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

  5. Lemon + eggtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

Lemon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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

Egg yolks
Thicken the filling and enrich it with richness and a smooth custard body.
Cornstarch
Thickens the boiling water and sugar mixture into a stable, sliceable filling.
Egg whites
Whipped into stiff foam that forms the light, airy meringue topping.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps stabilize the whipped egg white meringue.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the filling and balances its sweetness.

The step that matters

Cooking the yolks into the cornstarch mixture. Egg yolks can scramble if added to hot starch too quickly. Adding them slowly while stirring tempers them, and cooking briefly lets the starch fully thicken and the yolks set smoothly.

Swap the lemon

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, 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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