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Dessert

Lemon Pie

A lemon pie made with egg, sugar, butter, boiling water, corn starch, and lemons.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Corn and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,927 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Lemon Pie

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Dissolve the corn starch in a little cold water.

  2. Add the dissolved corn starch to the boiling water and stir in the sugar.

  3. Let it boil for a few minutes, then set aside to cool.

  4. Once cool, add the butter, egg, and the juice and grated rinds of the lemons.

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. Corn + lemontop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,927 recipes

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

  2. Butter + corntop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,345 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

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

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

  4. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Corn starch
Thickens the filling into a smooth, set custard-like texture as it heats.
Egg
Adds richness and helps give the filling body and structure.
Lemons
Provide the tart acidity and fragrant zest that flavor the pie.
White sugar
Sweetens the filling and balances the sharpness of the lemon.
Butter
Adds fat for a smoother, richer mouthfeel in the filling.

The step that matters

Dissolve the corn starch in cold water before adding it to the boiling water. Starch added dry to hot liquid clumps and does not dissolve evenly. Dissolving it in cold water first lets it disperse, so it thickens the filling smoothly when heated.

Swap the lemon

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

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

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