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Dessert

Lemon Pie

A lemon custard pie with a frosted egg white topping.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and corn 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

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

  1. In a bowl, combine the grated lemon rind, lemon juice, sugar, melted butter, hot water, corn starch, and egg yolks.

  2. Cook the mixture over medium heat until it thickens, stirring constantly.

  3. Pour the filling into a pre-baked pie crust.

Top and bake

  1. Top with beaten egg whites mixed with a little sugar.

  2. Return the pie to a 350°F (175°C) oven and bake until the frosting is slightly 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. Lemon + corntop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,927 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  2. Butter + corntop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,345 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

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

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

  4. Butter + eggtop 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

Corn starch
Thickens the filling as it cooks, giving it a smooth, sliceable set.
Egg yolks
Help thicken and enrich the filling, adding body and a custard-like texture.
Egg whites
Whipped with sugar, they form a foam that bakes into a light, browned topping.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps stabilise the beaten egg white topping.
Lemon juice
Provides the acidity that gives the filling its tart, bright flavour.

The step that matters

Cooking the filling until it thickens. Corn starch only thickens fully once it reaches a boil and its granules swell. Stirring constantly prevents scorching and lumps, and undercooking leaves the filling runny when cut.

Swap the lemon

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, 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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