Lemon Filling

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. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
   Smell alikemoderate
   Cooked together92,116 recipes

   Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

2. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
   Smell alikelow
   Cooked together106,462 recipes

   Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

3. Flour + lemontop 17% of all pairs
   Smell alikemoderate
   Cooked together30,404 recipes

   Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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).

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

Sugar

Sweetens the filling and helps thicken it as it cooks.

Flour

Thickens the filling as starch swells in the heated liquid.

Egg yolk

Adds richness and helps thicken the filling as it heats.

Lemon

Provides the tart flavor and aroma; the juice adds acidity and the rind adds fragrance.

The step that matters

Swap the lemon

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

1. Raisinfits better
2. Vanillafits better
3. Lemonthe original
4. 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.