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Dessert

Lemon Pie

A lemon pie made with eggs, butter, sugar, sweet cream, and lemon zest, baked until set.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Lemon Pie

Ingredients

Directions

Make the filling

  1. Squeeze the juice of both lemons.

  2. Grate the rind of one lemon.

  3. Stir together the yolks of 3 eggs, the white of 1 egg, sugar, butter, and lemon juice. Beat well.

  4. Add the sweet cream and beat for 2-3 minutes.

Bake and top

  1. Bake until the crust is done.

  2. Beat the remaining whites of the eggs with 4 tablespoons of sugar.

  3. Spread the egg white mixture on the pie.

  4. Return it quickly to the oven before it sets.

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 + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  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

Eggs
Yolks and whites thicken the filling and set the custard structure.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps the meringue topping stay glossy and stable.
Lemons
Juice provides the sharp acidity and rind adds fragrant lemon aroma.
Sweet cream
Adds richness and moisture to the filling for a softer, creamier texture.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smoother, tender filling.

The step that matters

Return it quickly to the oven before it sets. Meringue topping needs a short, hot bake to brown lightly and stay tender. If it sits too long, the egg whites can weep or become tough and rubbery.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Strawberryfits about as well
  3. Raspberryfits about as well
  4. Lemonthe original

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