Why it works: Lemon and butter 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 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.
Prepare the filling
Grate the rind and juice the lemons.
In a bowl, rub together the powdered sugar and butter.
Beat the egg yolks and add them to the butter and sugar mixture along with the lemon juice and rind.
Pour the mixture into a prepared rich puff pastry base.
Bake and top
Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until set.
While the pie is baking, beat the egg whites until stiff and gradually add powdered sugar.
Spread the meringue over the baked pie and return to the oven for a few minutes to brown lightly.
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 + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,227 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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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).
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
- Enrich the filling and help it set into a custard when baked.
- Egg whites
- Whipped into a meringue that gives a light, airy topping that browns in the oven.
- Butter
- Adds richness and a smooth texture to the filling.
- Lemons
- Provide the acidity and fragrant flavour of the filling.
- Powdered sugar
- Sweetens the filling and, whipped with the egg whites, stabilises the meringue.
The step that matters
Beat the egg whites until stiff before adding the sugar. Egg whites whipped to stiff peaks trap air and hold the meringue's shape; under-whipped or greasy whites will not stand up, and sugar added too early or too quickly weakens the foam.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, egg):
- Vanillafits better
- Lemonthe original
- Raisinfits about as well
- 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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