Why it works: Butter and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,227 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓
Lemon Pil
Ingredients
Directions
Make the filling
Dissolve cornstarch in cold water and boil for five minutes.
Remove from heat, then add sugar, butter, egg yolks, lemon juice, and lemon rind.
Bake the crust and fill
Line pie pans with rolled pastry, prick the bottom, and bake until almost done.
Fill the crust with lemon filling to a depth of three-fourths of an inch and cook until the pastry is done.
Top with meringue
Make meringue by beating egg whites until stiff, then gradually add 1 tablespoon sugar for each egg.
Spread meringue over the filling and cook slowly until slightly brown.
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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Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,227 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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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).
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
- Cornstarch
- Thickens the cooked filling into a sliceable custard as it boils.
- Eggs
- Egg yolks thicken and enrich the filling; whipped whites form the meringue topping.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the filling and helps stabilise the whipped egg white meringue.
- Lemon juice
- Provides the sharp acidity that defines the lemon flavour of the filling.
- Butter
- Adds richness and a smoother texture to the lemon filling.
The step that matters
Cook the meringue slowly until slightly brown. Meringue made with whipped egg whites can weep or toughen if baked too hot, while slow cooking sets it gently and allows a light golden colour without shrinking or leaking.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, egg):
- Vanillafits better
- Lemonthe original
- Raisinfits about as well
- Figfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, 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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