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Dessert

Lemon Cream Pie

A tart filling of lemon, sugar, butter, and cornstarch baked in a tart shell.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,227 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Lemon Cream Pie

Ingredients

Directions

Make the filling

  1. Dissolve the cornstarch in cold water.

  2. Stir the dissolved cornstarch into the boiling water.

  3. Add the butter and powdered sugar and mix well.

  4. Wait until the mixture is cold.

Bake and serve

  1. Add the lemon juice, lemon rind, and beaten egg.

  2. Pour the filling into an open tart shell without a top crust.

  3. Bake until set.

  4. Optionally top with meringue.

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

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

  2. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Egg + lemontop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

Sugar and lemon 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

Cornstarch
Thickens the filling into a smooth, sliceable custard as it cooks in the boiling water.
Egg
Adds richness and helps the filling set as it bakes.
Butter
Adds fat for a rich, tender texture and smooth mouthfeel.
Lemon juice
Provides the sharp acidity that defines the pie's flavor.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the filling and dissolves smoothly into the hot liquid.

The step that matters

Let the mixture cool before adding the egg. Adding beaten egg to a hot starch mixture can scramble it and leave lumps. Cooling first lets the egg blend smoothly and set evenly in the oven.

Swap the lemon

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, 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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