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Dessert

Lemok Pie

A lemon pie with a meringue topping.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Lemok Pie

three pies

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

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a bowl, mix the lemon rind, lemon juice, egg yolks, butter, sugar, and sweet milk until well combined.

  3. Pour the mixture into pie crusts to make three pies.

Make the meringue and bake

  1. In another bowl, beat the egg whites until soft peaks form, then gradually add 6 ounces of sugar and continue beating until stiff peaks form.

  2. Spread the meringue on top of the baked pies and brown slightly in the oven.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Lemon + milktop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,053 recipes

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

  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. Butter + sugartop 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

Egg yolks
Thicken the filling and add richness and a smooth, set texture as they cook.
Lemon juice
Adds the bright acidity that balances the sweetness of the filling and meringue.
Butter
Adds fat for a smooth, rich texture and mouthfeel in the filling.
Egg whites
Whipped into a foam that gives the meringue its light, airy structure.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and, added to the whites, stabilizes the meringue foam.

The step that matters

Beating the meringue to stiff peaks. Whites must be beaten until soft peaks form before sugar is added gradually. Adding sugar too fast or stopping early leaves a weak foam that can collapse or weep, and the meringue will not hold its shape.

Swap the lemon

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

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

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