Why it works: Corn and lemon 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
Stir corn starch into a little cold water in a small bowl.
Add the corn starch mixture to 1 cup of boiling water and bring to a boil.
Stir in 7 tablespoons of sugar, 4 egg yolks, grated rind, and juice of 2 lemons.
Pour the mixture into a prepared bottom pie crust and bake until set.
Top and brown
Beat 4 egg whites with 2 tablespoons of sugar until stiff peaks form in a separate bowl.
Spread the meringue over the top of the pie and brown 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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Corn + lemontop 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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Egg + lemontop 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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Corn + sugartop 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
- Corn starch
- Thickens the filling as it heats, giving it a sliceable, set body.
- Egg yolks
- Enrich and thicken the lemon filling, adding richness and a smooth set.
- Lemon juice
- Provides the sharp acidity that defines the filling's tangy flavour.
- Egg whites
- Whipped with sugar into a foam that forms the light, stable meringue topping.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the filling and helps stabilise the whipped egg white meringue.
The step that matters
Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks. Egg whites need to be whipped until they hold stiff peaks so the meringue stays airy and doesn't weep or collapse. Under-whipped whites produce a flat, watery topping.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (corn, sugar, egg):
- Vanillafits better
- Coconutfits about as well
- Raisinfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against corn, 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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