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Dessert

Lemon Pie

A lemon pie made with grated lemon rind, juice, sugar, corn starch, eggs, butter, and boiling water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and corn are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,927 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Lemon Pie

Ingredients

Directions

Make the filling

  1. In a bowl, combine the grated rind and juice of the lemon with the sugar and corn starch.

  2. Add the boiling water and stir until well mixed.

  3. Beat the eggs and add them to the mixture, stirring continuously.

  4. Pour the mixture into a saucepan and cook over medium heat until it thickens.

  5. Remove from heat and stir in the butter until melted.

Fill and cool

  1. Pour the filling into a pie crust and let it cool before serving.

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. Lemon + corntop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,927 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  2. Corn + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,345 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

  3. Lemon + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  4. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Thicken the filling and add richness and structure as they set with heat.
Corn starch
Thickens the lemon mixture into a smooth, sliceable filling as it cooks.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and balances the sharpness of the lemon juice.
Lemon
Provides the acidity and aroma that define the filling's flavor.
Butter
Adds fat for a smoother, richer mouthfeel in the finished filling.

The step that matters

Cooking the filling until it thickens. Starch needs to reach a simmer to thicken fully, and eggs can scramble if overheated. Stirring constantly over medium heat keeps the custard smooth and evenly set.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, corn, butter):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Coconutfits better
  3. Figfits about as well
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, corn, 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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