Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. 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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.
Prepare the filling
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a bowl, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
Add the sweet milk and mix well.
In a separate bowl, beat the egg yolks and then add them to the mixture.
Stir in the flour and the juice and grated rind of the lemon.
Bake and frost
Pour the mixture into a pie crust and bake for 30-35 minutes.
Whip the egg whites until stiff peaks form and spread over the pie as frosting.
Return the pie to the oven for an additional 10 minutes until the frosting is lightly browned.
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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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 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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Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,053 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, 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
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat, giving the filling a tender, smooth texture.
- Egg yolks
- Thicken and enrich the filling, giving it structure and a custard-like body when baked.
- Flour
- Helps thicken the filling and stabilise its texture as it bakes.
- Egg whites
- Whipped into stiff peaks to form a light frosting that browns in the oven.
- Lemon
- Provides acidity and aroma from the juice and grated rind.
The step that matters
Whip the egg whites until stiff peaks form. Under-whipped whites will not hold their shape and can weep or sink into the filling, while over-whipped whites turn dry and grainy. Stiff peaks give a stable, evenly browning frosting.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, milk, egg, flour):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Figfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, milk, egg, 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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