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 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Make the filling
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Mix sugar and cornstarch in a saucepan.
Add boiling water while stirring constantly.
Cook for 2 minutes, then add butter, beaten egg yolks, and lemon juice.
Bake and top
Pour the mixture into a pie crust and bake until the crust is brown, about 25 to 30 minutes.
Cool slightly and prepare the meringue.
Beat egg whites until stiff, then gradually add powdered sugar and flavoring.
Spread meringue on the pie and bake slowly until brown.
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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Egg + buttertop 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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Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + lemontop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together44,316 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
Sugar and lemon 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
- Cornstarch
- Thickens the boiling liquid into a smooth, sliceable custard as it gelatinizes.
- Egg yolks
- Enrich and thicken the filling, adding richness and a tender set.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the filling and balances the sharpness of the lemon.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the filling and cuts through the sweetness.
- Egg whites
- Whipped into foam to form the meringue topping, which holds its shape and browns in the oven.
- Butter
- Adds fat for a smoother, richer texture in the cooked filling.
The step that matters
Cooking the filling after adding the boiling water. Cornstarch must be stirred constantly and cooked long enough to fully thicken; undercooked starch leaves the filling thin and runny, while the egg yolks can scramble if the hot mixture is not kept moving.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, egg, butter):
- Vanillafits better
- Lemonthe original
- Raisinfits about as well
- Figfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, butter. 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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