Why it works: Orange and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓
Orange 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
Bake the pie crust according to your preferred method.
Squeeze and strain the juice from the oranges and lemon into a bowl.
In a saucepan, combine the juice with the sugar and warm it on the stove until the sugar dissolves.
Beat the yolks of the eggs in a small amount of the warmed juice.
Add the rest of the juice to the yolks while continuously beating.
Transfer the mixture to a double boiler.
Stir the mixture in the double boiler until it thickens.
Make the meringue and bake
Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.
Fold just under half of the beaten egg whites into the thickened yolk and juice mixture.
Pour the combined mixture into the baked pie crust.
Add a little sugar to the remaining egg whites.
Spread the sugared egg whites over the pie.
Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven until the meringue is lightly browned.
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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Orange + lemontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together10,634 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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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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Orange + sugartop 20% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together19,212 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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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
- Egg yolks
- Thicken the juice mixture as they cook, giving the filling its body and richness.
- Egg whites
- Whip into stiff peaks to form the airy, light meringue topping.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the filling and helps dissolve into the juice and stabilize the meringue.
- Oranges
- Provide the main juice and fresh citrus flavour of the filling.
- Lemon
- Adds acidity that balances the sweetness of the orange filling.
The step that matters
Stirring the yolk mixture in the double boiler until it thickens. Egg yolks thicken at gentle heat, but if they get too hot they scramble into lumps. Keeping the water gently simmering and stirring constantly keeps the custard smooth.
Swap the orange
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lemon, sugar, egg):
- Orangethe original
- Vanillafits about as well
- Limefits less well
- Raisinfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against lemon, 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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