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Dessert

Iced Lemon Pie

A lemon pie topped with meringue, baked until set.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and butter 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 ↓

Iced Lemon Pie

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).

Make the filling

  1. In a bowl, mix the grated lemon peel, lemon juice, cream of tartar, melted butter, egg yolks, and sugar until well combined.

  2. Pour the mixture into two pie crusts and bake until set.

Top and finish

  1. In another bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form, then gradually add the sifted sugar.

  2. Spread the meringue over the baked pies.

  3. Return to the oven and bake for 3 minutes until the meringue is 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. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  2. Cream + sugartop 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. Butter + eggtop 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 as they set.
Egg whites
Whip into a stiff foam that forms the light, airy meringue topping.
Lemon juice
Provides the sharp acidity that balances the sweetness of the filling.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps stabilise the whipped egg whites.
Cream of tartar
Stabilises the whipped egg whites so the meringue holds its peaks.

The step that matters

Beating the egg whites to stiff peaks. Whites must be whipped to a stable foam before the sugar is added gradually. Under-whipped or greasy whites will weep or collapse, and any trace of yolk or fat will stop them from reaching full volume.

Swap the lemon

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

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

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