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Lemon Pie

A tart lemon custard pie topped with meringue.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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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 filling

  1. Grate the lemon rinds into a dish.

  2. Cut the lemons in half and remove the seeds.

  3. Scoop the pulp and juice into the dish with a silver spoon.

  4. Add the sugar and water.

  5. Wet the cornstarch with some of the water.

  6. Mix the cornstarch with the yolks and one beaten egg white.

  7. Pour the mixture into two pastry-lined tins.

Bake and top with meringue

  1. Bake at 350°F (175°C).

  2. Beat the remaining egg whites.

  3. Gradually stir in the powdered sugar.

  4. Spread the meringue over the pies.

  5. Return to the oven until browned.

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. Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

  2. Lemon + eggtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

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

  3. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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 whipped whites form the meringue's foam.
Cornstarch
Thickens the lemon filling as it heats, giving it a sliceable set.
Lemons
Provide the tart acidity and bright aroma that balance the sweetness.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps balance the tartness of the lemon.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the meringue and dissolves easily into the whipped whites.

The step that matters

Gradually stir in the powdered sugar. Adding sugar slowly to beaten egg whites helps them form a stable, glossy foam. Adding it all at once can deflate the whites and make the meringue weep or stay soft.

Swap the lemon

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

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