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Dessert

Lemon Meringue Pie

A pie with lemon custard filling topped with meringue.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 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 Meringue Pie

Ingredients

Directions

Make the filling

  1. Mix 1/2 cup water and corn starch to create a paste.

  2. In a double boiler, combine 1 1/2 cups water and sugar; bring to a boil over direct heat.

  3. Add the cornstarch paste and cook until the mixture thickens, about 15 minutes.

  4. Pour the mixture over the slightly beaten egg yolks; return to the double boiler and cook for 1 more minute.

  5. Stir in the lemon rind, lemon juice, and butter until well blended.

  6. Cool the filling and pour it into the baked pie shell.

Make the meringue and finish

  1. For the meringue, beat 3 egg whites until soft peaks form, then gradually add 9 tablespoons sugar and 1 teaspoon lemon juice until stiff peaks form.

  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. Corn + lemontop 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 sliceable custard as it cooks with the liquid.
Egg yolks
Enrich and thicken the filling, giving it a rich, set texture.
Egg whites
Whipped into foam to form the airy, stable meringue topping.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and, in the meringue, stabilizes the whipped egg white foam.
Lemon
Supplies the bright acidity and aroma that define the filling's flavor.

The step that matters

Pour the cornstarch mixture over the egg yolks and cook only one minute more. Egg yolks can curdle or scramble if overheated, and cornstarch needs to reach a boil to reach full thickness. Returning the mixture to the double boiler gently cooks the yolks while keeping the filling smooth.

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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