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Lemon Meringue Pie

A pie with lemon custard filling topped with meringue.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 Meringue Pie

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Grate the rind of the lemons, remove the skin, and chop the rest finely.

  2. Stir cornstarch into hot water and boil.

  3. Let the mixture cool.

  4. Add sugar, egg yolks, and chopped lemon, and stir well.

Bake and top

  1. Line a pie plate with the crust and pour in the lemon mixture.

  2. Bake until set.

  3. Cover with meringue made from egg whites and sugar.

  4. Brown the meringue 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 + 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. Sugar + eggtop 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 lemon mixture so it sets into a firm filling when cooled.
Egg yolks
Enrich the filling and help it set into a creamy, rich texture.
Egg whites
Whip into a foam that forms the light, airy meringue topping.
Lemons
Provide the sharp acidity and fragrant aroma that define the pie.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps stabilize the meringue.

The step that matters

Let the mixture cool before adding the yolks. Egg yolks can scramble if added to a very hot starch mixture. Cooling it first lets the yolks blend smoothly and keeps the filling silky.

Swap the lemon

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg. 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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