Skip to main content
Dessert

Lemon Pie

A lemon custard pie topped with a meringue.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Cover the pie plate with a rich pie crust.

Make the filling

  1. In a double boiler, combine the lemon juice, grated rind, sugar, egg, egg yolks, corn starch, and cold water.

  2. Boil until thick, stirring constantly.

Make the meringue and bake

  1. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff, then gradually add the powdered sugar.

  2. Spread the meringue over the pie filling after baking.

  3. Brown the meringue lightly in the oven.

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. Corn + buttertop 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. 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

Egg yolks
Enrich the filling and help thicken it as the custard sets with heat.
Corn starch
Thickens the lemon filling as it boils, giving it body.
Egg whites
Whipped into a foam that forms the airy structure of the meringue.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps stabilize the whipped egg white foam.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that balances the sweetness of the filling.

The step that matters

Boil the filling until thick, stirring constantly. Cornstarch only thickens fully once the mixture reaches a boil, so the filling must be taken far enough to set. Constant stirring prevents lumps and scorching on the bottom of the pan.

Swap the lemon

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

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

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

You might also like

Lemon CakeLemon Cake228 recipesLemon IceLemon Ice147 recipesLemon SherbetLemon Sherbet103 recipesCorn CakeCorn Cake90 recipes