Why it works: Milk and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, 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
Juice the lemons and combine the juice with 2 cups of sugar, 4 eggs, ⅔ cup of milk, and 2 tablespoons of flour in a bowl.
Mix until smooth and pour the mixture into a pie crust.
Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until set.
Frost and brown
For the frosting, beat the whites of 4 eggs until stiff, then gradually add 2 tablespoons of sugar until glossy.
Spread the frosting over the pie and return to the oven for a few minutes to lightly 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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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Lemon + milktop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,053 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Lemon + flourtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together30,404 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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
- Eggs
- Bind the filling and set it into a sliceable custard when baked.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the filling and, in the frosting, helps the whites become stiff and glossy.
- Lemon juice
- Provides the sharp acidity that defines the pie's flavour.
- Flour
- Thickens the filling so it holds its shape when cut.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and richness to the custard filling.
- Egg whites
- Whip into a stiff foam that forms the light topping, which browns in the oven.
The step that matters
Baking the filling until set. Underbaking leaves the egg-thickened custard runny, while overbaking can make it weep or turn rubbery, so it should be firm at the centre but still smooth.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, egg, milk, flour):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Figfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, milk, flour. 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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