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
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.
Make the lemon filling
Combine lemon rind, lemon juice, 1 cup sugar, and 1 cup water in a saucepan.
Add cornstarch and cook over medium heat until thickened.
Remove from heat and let cool slightly.
Beat the 4 egg yolks and stir them into the lemon mixture.
Pour the filling into a pie crust and let it set.
Make the frosting and bake
Beat the reserved egg whites until soft peaks form.
Gradually add ½ cup sugar to the whites and beat until stiff peaks form.
Spread the frosting over the pie.
Bake at 350°F (175°C) until golden.
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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Lemon + eggtop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together44,316 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
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Sugar + eggtop 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
- Yolks thicken the filling and whites whip into the meringue topping.
- Cornstarch
- Thickens the lemon mixture as it cooks, giving the filling its body.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the lemon filling and stabilises the whipped egg white topping.
- Lemon
- Provides the acidic, aromatic flavour of the filling from rind and juice.
The step that matters
Adding cornstarch and cooking until thickened. Cornstarch needs to reach a simmer with the liquid to swell and thicken fully. Undercooked starch leaves the filling thin and runny, and it may not set properly once cooled.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, egg):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
- Datesfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, 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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