Why it works: Flour and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Long Branch 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 crusts
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Bake two pie crusts until golden.
Make the custard
In a bowl, mix the egg yolks and sugar until well combined.
Bring the milk to a boil in a saucepan.
In a separate bowl, mix the flour with some cold milk until smooth.
Add the flour mixture to the boiling milk and stir until it thickens.
Remove from heat and stir in the yolks and sugar mixture.
Return to heat for 1 minute to set the eggs, then remove again.
Add lemon juice and grated lemon rind for flavor.
Bake and serve
Pour the mixture into the baked crusts.
Spread the beaten egg whites on top, sweetened and flavored.
Bake for a few minutes until the top is browned.
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.
-
Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
-
Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,053 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
-
Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Flour + lemontop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together30,404 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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
- Eggs
- Yolks thicken the custard and whites form a browned meringue topping.
- Flour
- Starch swells in the hot milk, thickening the filling so it holds its shape when sliced.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base of the custard, setting into a smooth filling as it cooks.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the custard and meringue and helps the egg whites hold their structure.
- Lemon
- Juice adds acidity and rind adds aroma, giving the filling its tart flavor.
The step that matters
Return to heat for 1 minute to set the eggs, then remove again.. Egg yolks thicken when heated, but overheating can scramble them and make the filling grainy. Heat briefly and stir constantly, then remove promptly.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, egg, flour, milk):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Figfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, flour, milk. 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.
More lemon pie recipes
You might also like
Lemon Cake228 recipes
Lemon Ice147 recipes
Lemon Sherbet103 recipes
Lemon Custard64 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.