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Lemon Custard for Pies

A lemon custard made with sugar, butter, cornstarch, eggs, and lemon juice, used as a filling for pies.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,227 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Lemon Custard for Pies

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Beat the egg yolks well.

  2. Stir in the sugar, melted butter, lemon juice, and grated lemon rind.

  3. Add the well-beaten egg whites and cornstarch.

  4. Place the mixture in a saucepan over hot water.

  5. Stir until it thickens.

Fill and bake

  1. When cool, pour into pie crusts and bake quickly.

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

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

  2. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Lemon + eggtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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

Eggs
Provide structure and richness, and set into a thick custard when heated.
Granulated sugar
Adds sweetness and softens the texture of the custard.
Butter
Adds fat for a smooth, rich mouthfeel.
Lemons
Supply acidity and bright lemon aroma from the juice and rind.
Cornstarch
Thickens the custard as it heats with the liquid.

The step that matters

Stir over hot water until it thickens. Gentle, steady heat lets the starch and egg proteins thicken the custard smoothly. Overheating can scramble the eggs and leave lumps, so stir constantly and do not let the water boil hard.

Swap the lemon

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, egg. 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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