Why it works: Sugar and lemon 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 ↓
Sliced 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.
Assemble the pie
Line a pie plate with the pie crust.
Add 1 cup of sugar to the crust.
Pare the lemon(s), removing all white rind.
Slice the lemon(s) very thin and remove all seeds.
Cover with a top crust, puncture holes with a fork, and pinch the edges to seal.
Bake and serve
Bake at 400°F (200°C) for 15 minutes.
Serve cold.
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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Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 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
- Pie crust
- Forms the structure that holds the filling and encloses it on top and bottom.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and draws moisture out of the lemon slices, softening them into the filling.
- Lemon
- Provides the tart acidity and fragrant oils that define the pie's flavor.
The step that matters
Pare the lemon(s), removing all white rind. The white pith under the peel is bitter, so removing it keeps the filling tart and bright rather than harsh.
“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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