Why it works: Sugar and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 92,116 recipes. Both carry phenylacetaldehyde, which smells hawthorne, honey. The science ↓
Lemon Pie
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the filling
Grate the rind of the lemon and extract the juice.
In a pot, combine the lemon juice, grated rind, water, sugar, egg yolks, and flour.
Boil the mixture until the flour is cooked.
Bake and frost
Pour the filling into a pie crust and bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven.
Beat the egg whites to a froth, adding a little sugar.
Spread the frothy mixture over the baked pie.
Return the pie to the oven until the frosting is slightly browned.
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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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Lemon + flourtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together30,404 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Lemon + eggtop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together44,316 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
Egg and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Lemon
- Provides the sharp acidity and aroma that flavour the filling.
- Egg yolks
- Thicken the filling and add richness as they set with the flour.
- Flour
- Thickens the lemon filling so it holds its shape when cut.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the filling and balances the lemon's acidity.
- Egg whites
- Whipped into a foam that forms the light frosting and browns in the oven.
The step that matters
Boil the filling until the flour is cooked. Flour only thickens fully once its starch granules swell and gelatinize in boiling liquid. If the mixture is not boiled long enough, the filling stays thin and tastes raw-floury.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, egg, flour):
- Raisinfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Lemonthe original
- Figfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, flour. 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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