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
Make the filling
In a saucepan, combine sugar and corn starch.
Gradually stir in boiling water and cook until thickened.
Remove from heat and stir in egg yolks, butter, lemon juice, and lemon rind.
Fill and serve
Pour the filling into the cooled pie shell.
Let it cool before serving.
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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Corn + lemontop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,927 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Corn + buttertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,345 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
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Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,227 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- Sugar
- Sweetens the filling and helps balance the sharpness of the lemon.
- Corn starch
- Thickens the boiling water into a smooth, sliceable custard as it cooks.
- Egg yolks
- Add richness and help set the filling as it thickens.
- Butter
- Adds fat for a smooth, rich texture and mouthfeel.
- Lemon juice
- Provides the acidity that gives the pie its tart lemon flavour.
- Lemon rind
- Adds aromatic lemon oils for fragrance beyond the juice's sourness.
The step that matters
Cook until thickened. Corn starch only thickens fully when it reaches a boil and is cooked long enough. Stopping early leaves a runny filling that will not set, while the egg yolks added afterward must be stirred in off the heat so they do not scramble.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, corn, egg, butter):
- Vanillafits better
- Coconutfits better
- Figfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, corn, 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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