Why it works: Sugar and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 92,116 recipes. Both carry phenylacetaldehyde, which smells hawthorne, honey. The science ↓
Lemon Pie
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Make the filling
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
In a bowl, mix ¾ cup sugar and 2 teaspoons flour.
Add 3 beaten egg yolks and 1 beaten egg white to the mixture.
Stir in the juice and grated rind of 1 lemon and ½ cup cold water.
Pour the mixture into an open pastry crust and bake until it shakes like jelly.
Let it cool.
Top and brown
For the meringue, beat 2 egg whites until dry, then gradually add 2 tablespoons powdered sugar.
Spread the meringue over the cooled pie and brown in the oven.
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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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + lemontop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together30,404 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + lemontop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together44,316 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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 lemon filling as they set, giving it a rich, custard-like body.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the filling and balances the sharpness of the lemon juice.
- Lemon juice
- Provides the acidity and bright flavor that define the filling.
- Flour
- Stabilizes the filling so it sets firmly rather than runny.
- Egg whites
- Whipped into a foam that forms the meringue topping, which browns in the oven.
The step that matters
Baking the filling until it shakes like jelly. Egg proteins set as they heat, so underbaking leaves the filling runny while overbaking can make it weep or turn tough. Pulling it when it just wobbles lets residual heat finish the set as it cools.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, flour, egg):
- Raisinfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Lemonthe original
- Figfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, flour, 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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