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Dessert

Lemon Pie

A lemon pie with a meringue topping made from eggs, sugar, lemon, and cornstarch.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Lemon Pie

three pies

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. In a bowl, mix the egg, sugar, water, bread crumbs, lemon juice, and grated rind.

  2. Pour the mixture into a pie crust to make three pies.

Make the lemon jelly

  1. In a saucepan, combine the grated lemon, sugar, cornstarch, butter, and cold water.

  2. Cook over medium heat until the mixture thickens into a clear jelly.

Top and finish

  1. Beat the egg whites until stiff, then gradually add the sugar.

  2. Spread the meringue over the pie filling.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  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

Egg whites
Whipped into a stiff foam that forms the light, airy meringue topping.
Cornstarch
Thickens the cooked lemon mixture into a clear, sliceable jelly.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps stabilize the whipped egg whites.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity and sharp lemon tartness to balance the sweetness.
Bread crumbs
Absorb liquid and give the filling body.

The step that matters

Cooking the lemon jelly until clear and thick. Cornstarch only thickens fully once the mixture reaches a simmer and is held there briefly. Undercooked starch stays runny and can make the filling weep or slump when cut.

Swap the lemon

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

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

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