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Dessert

Date and Lemon Pie

A fruit pie made with dates, lemon juice, and a cornstarch-flour thickener, baked in a shortcrust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,673 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Date and Lemon Pie

Ingredients

Directions

Make the filling

  1. In a saucepan, cook the corn starch and flour in 1½ cups of water for 3-4 minutes.

  2. Dissolve the ground dates in the remaining ½ cup of water and stir into the mixture.

  3. Add the lemon juice and salt, then pour into a pie crust.

Bake

  1. Bake until set.

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. Flour + almondtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Dates + almondtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together217 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Corn + almondtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together485 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Lemon + almondtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Corn + flourtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,165 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Corn starch
Thickens the filling as it cooks in water, giving it a set, sliceable body.
Flour
Adds additional thickening alongside the corn starch, helping the filling hold its shape.
Ground dates
Provide sweetness and body, so the filling tastes rich without added sugar.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and balances the sweetness of the dates.

The step that matters

Cook the starch and flour in water for 3-4 minutes. Starch granules only swell and thicken fully once heated in water. If the mixture is not cooked long enough, the filling stays thin and can taste raw and floury, and it will not set well in the oven.

Swap the dates

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lemon, corn, flour, almond):

  1. Limefits better
  2. Avocadofits better
  3. Raisinfits better
  4. Datesthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lemon, corn, flour, almond. 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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