Why it works: Lemon and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,053 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
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 the filling
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a bowl, mix the juice and rind of the lemons, sugar, milk, cornstarch, and egg yolks until smooth.
Pour the mixture into two pie crusts.
Make the meringue and bake
In another bowl, beat the egg whites until frothy.
Gradually add the powdered sugar to the egg whites and continue beating until stiff peaks form.
Spread the meringue over the pies.
Bake in the oven until the meringue is golden brown.
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.
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Lemon + milktop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,053 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Lemon + eggtop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together44,316 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
Lemon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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
- Egg yolks
- Thicken the filling and add richness as they set with the lemon juice.
- Egg whites
- Whipped into stiff peaks to form the airy meringue topping.
- Cornstarch
- Thickens the lemon filling so it holds a sliceable set.
- White sugar
- Sweetens the filling and balances the sharpness of the lemon.
- Lemon juice and rind
- Provide the tart, aromatic lemon flavour of the filling.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and body to the filling.
The step that matters
Beating the egg whites to stiff peaks. Egg whites must be beaten until they hold stiff peaks; under-beaten whites collapse and weep, while adding sugar gradually helps stabilise the foam so the meringue stays glossy and holds its shape in the oven.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, milk, egg):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits about as well
- Raisinfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, milk, egg. 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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