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Dessert

Lemon Pie

A lemon custard filling baked in a pie crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and corn 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

Ingredients

Directions

Make the filling

  1. In a double boiler, combine the grated lemon rind, lemon juice, sugar, cold water, corn starch, and beaten egg yolks.

  2. Cook while stirring constantly until thickened.

  3. Add a small piece of butter and mix well.

Assemble and finish

  1. Pour the filling into a pre-baked pie crust.

  2. Frost and brown the top as desired.

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 + corntop 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. 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. 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

Egg yolks
Thicken the custard as they cook and add richness and body.
Corn starch
Swells when heated, thickening the lemon filling so it can be sliced.
Lemon juice
Supplies the sharp acidity that gives the pie its characteristic tang.
Sugar
Balances the tartness of the lemon and adds sweetness.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, glossy texture to the filling.

The step that matters

Cook while stirring constantly until thickened. Starch thickens only when heated evenly, and constant stirring prevents lumps and scorching on the bottom. The egg yolks can curdle if overheated, so heat must stay gentle and steady until the filling thickens.

Swap the lemon

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, corn, 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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