Why it works: Lemon and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 53,532 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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.
Make the filling
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a bowl, combine lemon juice, lemon zest, and sugar, and mix well until the sugar is dissolved.
Pour the mixture into a prepared pie crust.
Bake and cool
Bake for 25-30 minutes or until set.
Let cool before serving.
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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Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 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
- Lemon juice
- Provides the sharp acidity that defines the pie's flavor and helps the filling set.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the filling and balances the lemon's acidity.
- Lemon zest
- Adds aromatic lemon oils for extra fragrance and flavor.
The step that matters
Dissolve the sugar fully before pouring. Undissolved sugar grains can leave a gritty texture in the finished filling, so mixing until the sugar dissolves gives a smooth result.
“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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