Why it works: Sugar and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 53,532 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. 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.
Prepare the crust
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Line a deep pie pan with the pastry and bake until golden.
Make the filling
In a saucepan, combine sugar, lemon juice, grated lemon rind, cornstarch, egg yolk, and boiling water.
Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until thickened.
Pour the filling into the baked pastry shell.
Make the meringue and bake
In a bowl, beat the egg whites until soft peaks form, then gradually add sugar to sweeten.
Spread the meringue over the pie filling and bake until 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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Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Lemon + eggtop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together44,316 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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
- Lemon juice
- Provides the sharp acidity that defines the pie's flavor and sets off the sweetness.
- Cornstarch
- Thickens the filling as it cooks, giving it a smooth, sliceable body.
- Egg yolk
- Enriches the filling and helps it thicken into a creamy custard.
- Egg whites
- Whipped with sugar to form the airy, lightly browned meringue topping.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the filling and stabilizes the whipped egg whites in the meringue.
The step that matters
Cook the filling until thickened. Cornstarch only thickens fully when the mixture reaches a boil while stirred constantly; stopping early leaves a runny filling, and letting it scorch on the bottom of the pan can spoil the flavor.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, egg):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
- Datesfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, 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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