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Dessert

Lemon Pie

A lemon custard pie topped with meringue, baked with a flaky pastry crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Lemon Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the lemon filling

  1. Mix cornstarch and sugar in a bowl, then add to boiling water, stirring until thickened.

  2. Add grated lemon rind and cook for 10 minutes.

  3. Beat egg yolks until creamy, then slowly add to the cornstarch mixture, cooking for 2 more minutes.

  4. Remove from heat and stir in lemon juice and butter.

Bake the crust

  1. Line a pie pan with flaky pastry and cover with soft paper, filling with stale bread.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven (350°F / 175°C) until crust is set.

  3. Remove paper and bread, then fill with lemon mixture.

Top with meringue

  1. Beat egg whites until stiff, add 2 tablespoons sugar, and beat until combined.

  2. Spread meringue over the pie and bake in a cool oven (300°F / 150°C) until lightly browned.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

  1. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  3. Lemon + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  4. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Cornstarch
Thickens the boiling water into a smooth, sliceable custard-like filling.
Egg yolks
Enrich the filling and help it set into a rich, creamy texture.
Lemon juice
Provides the acidity that gives the filling its tart flavour.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps stabilise the beaten egg whites in the meringue.
Egg whites
Whipped into foam to form the light, airy meringue topping.

The step that matters

Adding the beaten egg yolks to the hot cornstarch mixture. Egg yolks scramble if added too quickly to hot liquid. Adding them slowly while stirring tempers them, keeping the filling smooth and thickened.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, butter, bread):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Datesfits about as well
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, butter, bread. 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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