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Dessert

Lemon Pie

A lemon pie with a buttery crust and meringue topping.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, 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.

Make the crust

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

  2. Cut the lard or shortening into the flour and salt until it resembles fine crumbs.

  3. Add cold water gradually until the mixture holds together; handle as little as possible.

  4. Line pie pans with the crust, prick with a fork, and bake until lightly golden.

Make the filling

  1. In a double boiler, mix water, sugar, flour, and egg yolks; cook until thickened.

  2. Stir in the lemon juice, grated rind, and butter until well combined.

  3. Pour the filling into the baked crust.

Top and brown

  1. Beat the egg whites until soft peaks form, then gradually add powdered sugar until stiff peaks form.

  2. Spread the meringue over the filling and brown 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. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  3. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  5. Flour + lemontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Flour
Forms the structure that holds the crust and thickens the filling.
Lard or shortening
Coats flour particles to keep the crust tender and flaky.
Egg yolks
Thicken the lemon filling and add richness.
Egg whites
Whip into a foam that forms the meringue topping.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and stabilizes the meringue.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the sweet filling.

The step that matters

Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks before browning. Egg whites need sugar added gradually while whipping to form a stable foam. Under-whipped or greasy whites will weep or collapse in the oven, so the meringue stays soft and watery instead of holding its shape.

Swap the lemon

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, 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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