Why it works: Lemon and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 53,532 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Lemon Pie
Ingredients
Directions
Bake the crust
Preheat the oven and bake the pie crust until golden.
Make the filling
Beat together the sugar, eggs, and lemon juice in a bowl.
Bring ½ cup of water to a boil in a saucepan.
Mix 2 tablespoons of cornstarch with ¼ cup of water, then stir into the boiling water.
Combine the cornstarch mixture with the egg mixture and stir well.
Pour the filling into the pre-baked pie crust.
Frost and serve
Whip the reserved egg white and use it to frost the pie before serving.
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 + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + lemontop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together44,316 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
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Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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
- Eggs
- Thicken the filling as they set with heat and add richness and structure.
- Lemon juice
- Provides the tart acidity and bright lemon flavor of the filling.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the filling and balances the sourness of the lemon.
- Cornstarch
- Thickens the filling as it heats in water, giving a sliceable texture.
- Egg white
- Whipped into a foam to form a light, soft frosting on top of the pie.
The step that matters
Stirring the cornstarch mixture into the egg mixture. The cornstarch mixture is hot from boiling, and it is combined with the beaten eggs. Stir steadily so the eggs do not scramble and the starch disperses evenly, which keeps the filling smooth.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
- Datesfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against 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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