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.
Prepare the filling
Grate the rind off the lemons and peel off the white skin.
Chop the lemons finely and mix with sugar and beaten eggs.
Assemble the pie
Roll out the pastry dough thinly and line a pie plate with it.
Fill the crust halfway with the lemon mixture.
Roll out another thin layer of pastry and cover the pie.
Seal the edges and fill the pie plate with the remaining lemon mixture.
Bake
Cover the pie with a rich puff pastry and bake at 400°F (200°C) for 20 minutes.
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
- Lemons
- Provide the sharp acidity and aromatic citrus flavor that define the filling.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the tart lemon and helps give the filling its body.
- Eggs
- Bind the chopped lemon and sugar and help the filling set as it bakes.
- Rich pastry dough
- Forms the crust that holds the filling and gives a tender, flaky texture.
The step that matters
Seal the edges. The filling is wet and juicy, so a poorly sealed edge can let liquid leak and bubble out during baking, leaving the pie underfilled and the crust soggy.
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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