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Dessert

Lemon Pie

A lemon custard pie baked in a crust, finished with optional meringue.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and corn 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

Prepare the filling

  1. Grate the lemon rind carefully, avoiding the white part.

  2. In a small saucepan, combine boiling water and corn starch mixed with a little cold water.

  3. Stir until it boils, then remove from heat.

  4. Add butter and sugar, which should be well mixed beforehand.

  5. Once cool, stir in the beaten egg and lemon juice.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a pie crust and bake until set.

  2. If desired, top with meringue and brown in the oven.

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. Lemon + corntop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,927 recipes

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

  2. Corn + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,345 recipes

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

  3. Lemon + buttertop 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, sliceable custard as it boils.
Egg
Adds richness and helps the filling set when baked.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, tender texture to the filling.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and balances the sharpness of the lemon.
Lemon juice
Provides the acidity and bright flavour that define the pie.

The step that matters

Stir the cornstarch mixture until it boils. Cornstarch only thickens fully once it reaches a boil, so the filling must be brought to a boil and stirred constantly. Removing it too early leaves the filling thin and runny, and it may not set properly after baking.

Swap the lemon

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

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

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