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Dessert

Lemon Pie

A lemon custard pie 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 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

2 large pies or 3 small pies

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 the filling

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

  2. In a large bowl, mix together the sugar, butter, hot water, egg yolks, lemon juice, lemon rind, and corn starch until well combined.

  3. Pour the mixture into pie crusts to make 2 large pies or 3 small pies.

Make the meringue and bake

  1. In a separate bowl, beat the egg white with 1 tablespoon of sugar until stiff peaks form.

  2. Spread the meringue on top of the pies.

  3. Bake in the oven until the meringue is browned.

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. Butter + corntop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,345 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

  3. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

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

  4. Butter + eggtop 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
Thicken the filling into a rich, creamy custard as they set.
Corn starch
Thickens the lemon filling so it holds a firm, sliceable set.
Egg white
Whipped into stiff peaks to form the airy, browned meringue topping.
Lemon juice
Provides the sharp acidity that balances the sweetness of the filling.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, tender texture to the filling.

The step that matters

Beating the egg white to stiff peaks. Egg white needs to be whipped until stiff peaks form so it traps air and holds its shape. Under-whipped meringue weeps or collapses in the oven, while the sugar helps stabilise the foam.

Swap the lemon

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

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

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