Why it works: Cream and butter 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
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Make the filling
Grate the rind of the lemon, then peel off the thick white skin and grate the rest, removing the seeds.
In a bowl, combine the egg yolks, sugar, sweet cream, melted butter, and flour or cornstarch. Mix in the grated lemon.
Beat the egg whites to stiff froth, then add 2 teaspoons of sugar.
Bake and finish
Pour the mixture into a pie crust and bake at 350°F (175°C) until set.
Spread the beaten egg whites on top and return to the oven until golden brown.
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.
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Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
- Egg yolks
- Thicken the filling as they set, giving it a rich, custardy body.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the filling and helps stabilise the beaten egg whites.
- Sweet cream
- Adds moisture and richness, softening the set texture of the filling.
- Flour or cornstarch
- Thickens the filling so it sets firmly rather than running when cut.
- Lemon
- Provides the acidity and aroma that define the pie's tangy flavour.
- Egg whites
- Form a light meringue topping that browns in the oven.
The step that matters
Returning the meringue to the oven. Egg whites must be beaten to stiff froth and then baked only until golden. Underbaking leaves the topping weepy and soft, while overbaking makes it tough and sugary.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, cream, butter, flour):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Coconutfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, cream, butter, flour. 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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