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Lemon Meringue Pie

A baked pie with a lemon custard filling topped with meringue.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Lemon Meringue Pie

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the filling

  1. Mix cornstarch and sugar in a bowl.

  2. Add to boiling water, stirring constantly until clear.

  3. Remove from heat and stir in butter, beaten yolks, lemon juice, and lemon rind.

  4. Cool the mixture.

Bake the crust

  1. Line a pie plate with the crust and prick it with a fork.

  2. Bake the crust at 400°F (200°C) until golden.

  3. Fill the baked crust with the lemon mixture.

Make the meringue and bake

  1. In a clean bowl, beat egg whites until soft peaks form.

  2. Add lemon juice, then gradually add sugar, beating until stiff peaks form.

  3. Spread meringue over the lemon filling and bake at 350°F (175°C) until meringue is brown.

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. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  2. Butter + vanillatop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,050 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Lemon + vanillatop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,961 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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 lemon mixture into a sliceable filling as it cooks with the boiling water.
Egg yolks
Enrich and thicken the filling, adding richness and a smooth set.
Egg whites
Whipped into foam to form the airy structure of the meringue topping.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that gives the filling its bright, tart flavour.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and, when whipped with the whites, stabilises the meringue.
Butter
Adds fat for a smoother, richer texture in the cooked filling.

The step that matters

Cooking the filling until clear. Starch only thickens fully when it boils while stirred, so stopping early leaves a runny filling, and stirring constantly prevents lumps and scorching on the bottom of the pan.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Figfits better
  2. Peachfits better
  3. Coconutfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, egg, vanilla. 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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