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 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Make the lemon filling
In a small pot, combine lemon juice, grated rind, sugar, egg yolks, water, and cornstarch.
Place the pot in a larger pot of boiling water and cook until thickened.
Prepare the crust
Prepare a puff pastry crust.
Line a pie plate with the crust.
Bake the crust in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) until lightly browned.
Assemble and top
Pour the lemon mixture into the baked crust.
Beat the egg whites until stiff, adding sugar to taste.
Spread the beaten egg whites over the lemon filling.
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 + 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).
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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- Lemon juice and rind
- Provides the sour, aromatic flavor that defines the pie.
- Egg yolks
- Thicken the filling and add richness and body as they set with heat.
- Cornstarch
- Thickens the lemon mixture as it heats, giving the filling a smooth, sliceable body.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the filling and balances the sourness of the lemon.
- Egg whites
- Whipped with sugar to form a stiff, airy meringue topping that browns lightly.
The step that matters
Cooking the lemon filling until thickened. Cornstarch thickens only when the mixture reaches a boil and is stirred or held there, and egg yolks can scramble if overheated. Cooking gently over boiling water until it coats a spoon gives a smooth, set filling.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, egg):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
- Datesfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, 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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