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Dessert

Lemon Pie

A tart lemon custard filling topped with a sweet meringue.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and corn are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,955 recipes. Both carry hexanal, which smells green, grassy. The science ↓

Lemon Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the filling

  1. Grate the rind of the lemons into a bowl and chop the pulp finely.

  2. Mix the pulp with the grated rind in the bowl.

  3. Add the corn starch and beat smooth with the cold milk.

  4. Separate the yolks from the whites of the eggs.

  5. Add the yolks to the mixture in the bowl and beat well, adding 2 tablespoons of sugar.

Bake and top

  1. Line a pie tin with pie crust.

  2. Pour the mixture into the crust and bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 20 minutes.

  3. Whip the egg whites to a stiff froth and add the remaining sugar.

  4. Remove the pie from the oven and spread the sugared froth over the top.

  5. Return the pie to the oven for 5 minutes to set and brown the froth.

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. Milk + corntop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,955 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

  2. Lemon + corntop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,927 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Lemon + milktop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Lemon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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

Eggs
Yolks thicken the filling, while whipped whites form the light meringue topping.
Corn starch
Gelatinises with the liquid to thicken the lemon filling so it holds its shape when sliced.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps the meringue whites whip into a stable, glossy froth.
Lemons
Provide the sharp acidity and aroma that balance the sweetness of the filling.
Milk
Adds liquid and richness, forming the body of the lemon custard with the starch and yolks.

The step that matters

Returning the pie to the oven. Meringue needs only a few minutes to set and brown; too long and it weeps, toughens, or turns grainy, while too short leaves it soft and pale.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Coconutfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, milk, 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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