Why it works: Milk and corn are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,955 recipes. Both carry hexanal, which smells green, grassy. The science ↓
Lemon Pie, No. 3
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.
Make the filling
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Grate the rind of the lemons and press out the juice.
In a bowl, mix the lemon juice, grated rind, sugar, corn starch, and milk.
Pour the mixture into a pie crust as you would for any custard.
Bake and top
Bake the pie until set.
While the pie is baking, beat the egg whites until very light.
Gradually stir in 7 tablespoons of sugar until well combined.
Once the pie is done, spread the egg white mixture on top.
Return the pie to the oven for a few minutes to brown the topping.
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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Milk + corntop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,955 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
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Lemon + corntop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,927 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Lemon + milktop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,053 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 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
- Juice and rind supply the sharp acidity and fresh lemon aroma of the filling.
- White sugar
- Sweetens the filling and the topping, and helps keep the whipped whites stable.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and body to the custard filling as it bakes.
- Corn starch
- Thickens the filling as it heats so it sets into a sliceable custard.
- Eggs
- Beaten whites create a light, airy topping that browns in the oven.
The step that matters
Gradually stir in the sugar. Adding sugar slowly to beaten egg whites dissolves it fully and helps the foam hold its volume, so the topping stays light instead of weeping or deflating.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, milk, corn, egg):
- Vanillafits better
- Coconutfits better
- Figfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, milk, corn, 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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