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 in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Make the filling
In a bowl, combine the lemon juice, grated rind, sugar, and butter.
Mix the cornstarch with just enough cold water to make it smooth.
Add the smooth cornstarch mixture to the boiling water and stir.
Once it begins to boil, pour it over the butter and sugar mixture.
Stir in the lemon mixture and let it cool slightly.
Once cooler, stir in the beaten yolks of two eggs.
Bake and top
Pour the mixture into a prepared pie crust.
Bake in a moderate oven (350°F / 175°C) until set, like a custard pie.
Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks and gradually add the powdered sugar.
Spread the meringue over the pie after removing it from the oven.
Return the pie to the oven briefly to brown the meringue.
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
- Thicken the filling as they set, giving a rich, custard-like body.
- Cornstarch
- Thickens the boiling water into a smooth paste that firms the lemon filling.
- Egg whites
- Whipped into stiff peaks to form the airy, browned meringue topping.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the filling and balances the sharpness of the lemon juice.
- Lemon
- Supplies the acidity and aroma that define the filling's tart flavour.
The step that matters
Adding the yolks after the filling cools slightly. If the filling is too hot, the beaten yolks can scramble instead of blending smoothly, leaving a grainy texture. Cooling it a little first lets the yolks thicken it evenly.
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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