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
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the crust
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C) and bake the pie crust.
Make the filling
In a saucepan, combine water and sugar, and heat until melted.
Add the lemon juice and grated rind to the mixture.
In a bowl, beat the egg yolks separately and mix in the corn starch.
Stir the yolk mixture into the water and sugar mixture, cooking until thick.
Pour the filling into the baked crust.
Frost and brown
Beat the reserved egg whites until stiff, gradually adding sugar, then frost the pie.
Brown the frosting slightly in the oven.
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 + corntop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,927 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Sugar + lemontop 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).
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Sugar + corntop 21% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together7,168 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar and lemon 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
- Eggs
- Yolks thicken the filling when cooked; whites whip into a stiff meringue topping.
- Corn starch
- Thickens the lemon filling as it cooks, giving it a sliceable set.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the filling and helps stabilise the whipped egg white frosting.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the sweet filling.
The step that matters
Cooking the yolk mixture until thick. Starch needs to reach a boil in the liquid to thicken fully. If the filling is undercooked it stays runny, and the egg yolks can scramble if heated too quickly, so stir constantly while it thickens.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, egg, corn):
- Vanillafits better
- Coconutfits about as well
- Raisinfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, corn. 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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