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Dessert

Lemon Cream Pie

A pastry filled with a lemon custard thickened with cornflour and baked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,227 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Lemon Cream 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.

Make the filling

  1. Boil the cold water in a saucepan.

  2. Mix the cornflour with a little cold water.

  3. Add the mixture to the boiling water and stir until it thickens, then remove from heat.

  4. Add the butter, grated rind, and juice of the lemons.

  5. Stir in the beaten eggs.

Assemble and bake

  1. Line a pie dish with puff pastry and decorate the edges.

  2. Pour the lemon mixture into the pastry.

  3. Bake at 400°F (200°C) for 20 to 30 minutes.

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 + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

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

  2. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  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).

Sugar and lemon 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

Cornflour
Starch that swells when boiled with water, thickening the filling into a smooth custard.
Eggs
Proteins that set during baking, giving the filling body and richness.
Butter
Fat that adds richness and a smooth, tender mouthfeel to the filling.
Lemons
Juice gives sharp acidity and the grated rind adds aromatic citrus oils.
Pastry
Forms the crisp base that holds the liquid filling while it bakes.

The step that matters

Thicken the cornflour mixture fully before adding the eggs. Cornflour starch only thickens properly once the liquid reaches a boil, and stirring keeps it smooth without lumps. Removing the pan from heat before adding the eggs prevents them from scrambling.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Lemonthe original
  3. Raisinfits about as well
  4. Figfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, 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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