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Dessert

Lemon Pie

A baked pie with a lemon custard filling topped with meringue.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Lemon Pie

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Grate the lemon peel and squeeze out all the juice.

  2. Place the lemon in a cup of boiling water to extract more juice.

  3. In a saucepan, combine the boiling water, lemon juice, grated peel, and sugar; bring to a boil.

  4. Beat the egg yolks until light, then gradually add them to the boiling mixture.

  5. Return the mixture to the kettle and bring to a boil again.

  6. Dissolve the cornstarch in a little cold water and add it along with the butter to the boiling mixture; stir until thickened and let cool.

  7. Beat the egg whites until stiff, then fold half into the lemon mixture and reserve the other half for the topping.

Assemble and bake

  1. Pour the lemon cream into the baked pie crust.

  2. To the reserved egg whites, add powdered sugar and cream of tartar; beat until stiff.

  3. Spread the meringue over the pie and bake for 2-3 minutes, keeping the oven door slightly open to prevent over-browning.

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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  3. Lemon + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

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

  4. Egg + buttertop 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 and add richness as they cook in the lemon mixture.
Egg whites
Whip into a foam that holds air, forming the light meringue topping.
Cornstarch
Thickens the lemon cream as it boils, giving it a firm, sliceable body.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and balances the sharpness of the lemon juice.
Lemon
Provides the tart acidity and bright aroma of the filling.
Cream of tartar
Stabilizes the whipped egg whites so the meringue stays stiff and glossy.

The step that matters

Beating the egg whites to stiff peaks for the meringue. Egg whites must be whipped until they hold firm peaks; under-whipped whites collapse and weep, while over-whipped whites turn dry and grainy. Cream of tartar helps stabilize the foam.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Strawberryfits about as well
  3. Raspberryfits about as well
  4. Lemonthe original

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