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Dessert

Apple-lemon Pie

A pie filled with stewed apples, lemon zest and juice, sugar, and a meringue topping.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,501 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Apple-lemon Pie

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Sift the stewed apples through a large strainer.

  2. Prepare a pie crust, line a deep pie plate, and perforate with a fork.

  3. Bake the crust until light brown at 400°F (200°C).

Make the filling

  1. Mix the apple puree with lemon zest, lemon juice, sugar, salt, crushed soda cracker, and beaten egg yolks.

  2. Fill the baked crust with the apple-lemon mixture and bake until set.

  3. Beat half of the egg whites until stiff and fold into the pie filling.

Finish with meringue

  1. Mix the remaining egg whites with powdered sugar and vanilla essence for the meringue.

  2. Spread the meringue on the pie once it has cooled.

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. Apple + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,501 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  2. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Apple + lemontop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,551 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Lemon + vanillatop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,961 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Apple + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together16,478 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Apples
Provide the main body and moisture of the filling as they soften when stewed.
Lemon
Adds acidity and bright aroma that balance the sweetness of the filling.
Eggs
Yolks thicken the filling as it sets, and whipped whites give the topping its airy structure.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps the meringue stay glossy and stable.

The step that matters

Folding the beaten egg whites into the filling. Whites hold air only while whipped, so folding them in gently keeps the filling light. Stirring vigorously deflates the foam and leaves the pie dense.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Pearfits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Peachfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

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