Why it works: Sugar and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 92,116 recipes. Both carry phenylacetaldehyde, which smells hawthorne, honey. The science ↓
Lemon Cream Pie
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a very slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Make the custard
Separate the yolks and whites of the 4 eggs.
In a bowl, beat the yolks and add the sugar, flour, lemon juice, lemon rind, and boiling water.
Cook the mixture in a double boiler until it thickens, then fold in half of the beaten egg whites.
Continue cooking until the desired thickness is reached.
Assemble and bake
Pour the custard into a baked pie shell and top with the remaining beaten egg whites.
Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) until the meringue is brown.
For the meringue, beat the 2 egg whites until stiff, gradually adding the icing sugar.
Spread the meringue on top of the filling 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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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + lemontop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together30,404 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, 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).
Egg and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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 custard while whites add lightness and form the meringue topping.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps stabilise the egg white meringue.
- All-purpose flour
- Thickens the lemon custard so it sets into a sliceable filling.
- Lemon juice
- Provides acidity that brightens the custard's flavour.
- Icing sugar
- Dissolves easily into the whipped whites, giving a stable, sweet meringue.
The step that matters
Cooking the custard until thick. Flour and egg yolks thicken as they heat, but overcooking can curdle the eggs and undercooking leaves the filling runny. Cook gently in a double boiler, stirring, until it coats a spoon before folding in the whites.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, flour):
- Raisinfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Lemonthe original
- Figfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, flour. 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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