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Dessert

Lemon Pie

A baked lemon custard pie topped with meringue.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Corn and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,927 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Lemon Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the filling

  1. Dissolve corn starch in a little cold water.

  2. Bring 1 cup of hot water to a boil.

  3. Beat the egg yolks and 1 egg white together.

  4. Add sugar, butter, and grated lemon to the egg mixture.

  5. Combine with the boiling water.

Bake and top

  1. Line a pie tin with the crust.

  2. Pour the mixture into the crust and bake at 350°F (175°C).

  3. Beat the 2 egg whites until stiff and gradually add 4 tablespoons of sugar.

  4. Spread the meringue over the baked pie and return to the oven to brown.

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. Corn + lemontop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,927 recipes

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

  2. Corn + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,345 recipes

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

  3. Butter + lemontop 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. Sugar + buttertop 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

Corn starch
Thickens the filling as it heats in the boiling water, giving it a sliceable set.
Egg yolks
Enrich the filling and help it set, adding richness and a custard-like body.
Lemon
Provides the sharp acidity and bright aroma that balance the sweetness.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps stabilize the meringue foam.
Butter
Adds fat for smoothness and a rich mouthfeel in the filling.
Egg whites
Whipped into a foam that sets into a light, stable meringue topping.

The step that matters

Combine the starch mixture with the boiling water. Cornstarch only thickens fully when it is hot enough to swell and gelatinize, so the mixture must be heated and stirred until it becomes thick. Undercooked starch leaves the filling runny.

Swap the lemon

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against corn, egg, sugar, 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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