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Dessert

Lemon Filling for Pie

A citrusy filling made from lemon juice, rind, egg yolk, sugar, cornstarch, and water, topped with a meringue.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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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 Filling for Pie

Ingredients

Directions

Make the filling

  1. In a saucepan, combine lemon juice, grated rind, egg yolk, sugar, and cornstarch dissolved in cold water.

  2. Slowly add boiling water while stirring.

  3. Bring the mixture to a boil and let it cook for a few minutes.

Assemble and top

  1. Once cooled, pour the filling into a baked pie crust.

  2. Beat the egg white until stiff, adding a little sugar, and spread it over the filling.

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 + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

  2. Lemon + eggtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  3. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 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

Cornstarch
Thickens the filling as it cooks with the boiling water, giving it a sliceable body.
Egg yolk
Enriches the filling and helps it set to a creamy texture as it cooks.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and balances the sharpness of the lemon.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity and bright lemon flavor to the filling.
Egg white
Whipped with sugar, it forms a topping that is spread over the filling.

The step that matters

Cooking the filling to a boil. Cornstarch only thickens fully once the mixture reaches a boil, and it must be stirred while the boiling water is added so it does not lump. Undercooked starch leaves the filling thin.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits about as well
  3. Lemonthe original
  4. Datesfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar. 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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