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Dessert

Lemon Filling for Pie

A lemon custard filling for pie made with egg yolks, sugar, lemon zest, juice, cornstarch, butter, and hot water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and butter 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 Filling for Pie

Ingredients

Directions

Make the filling

  1. In a bowl, stir the egg yolks with the sugar.

  2. Add the grated rind and juice of the lemons (or lemon and orange).

  3. Mix in the cornstarch, butter, and hot water.

  4. Cook in a double boiler over heat until thick.

  5. Pour the mixture into a baked pie crust.

Top and brown

  1. Beat the egg whites with sugar and a little lemon juice.

  2. Spread the egg white mixture over the filling.

  3. Brown 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 + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

  5. Egg + lemontop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked 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

Egg yolks
Thicken the custard and enrich its color and richness as they set with heat.
Cornstarch
Thickens the hot liquid into a firm, sliceable filling as it cooks.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and balances the sourness of the lemon juice.
Lemon juice
Provides the sharp, acidic flavor that defines the filling.
Butter
Adds fat for a smoother, richer texture and mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Cook in a double boiler until thick. Cornstarch and egg yolks thicken only when heated enough, but yolks can scramble if overheated. Gentle, indirect heat in a double boiler thickens the filling evenly without curdling it, and the filling sets fully as it cools.

Swap the lemon

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

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

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

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