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Dessert

Lemon Cream Pie Filling

A sweet, tangy filling for a pie made with butter, cream, lemon juice, rind, and cornstarch.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Lemon Cream Pie Filling

Ingredients

Directions

Make the filling

  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan.

  2. Add the cream, lemon juice, and grated lemon rind.

  3. Stir in the cornstarch.

  4. Cook over low heat until the mixture thickens.

  5. Allow to cool completely.

Assemble

  1. Pour into pie plates lined with pastry.

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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  2. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  3. Cream + lemontop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,640 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Cream and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,640 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

Butter
Adds richness and fat, giving the filling a smooth, silky mouthfeel.
Cream
Adds fat and body, making the filling rich and creamy.
Lemon juice
Provides acidity and bright lemon flavour.
Cornstarch
Thickens the filling as it heats, so it sets when cooled.

The step that matters

Cook over low heat until the mixture thickens. Cornstarch needs to be heated enough to swell and thicken the liquid, but high heat or long cooking can scorch the dairy and break the texture. Gentle, steady heat with constant stirring gives a smooth, set filling.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Strawberryfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Coconutfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, cream. 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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