Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Sioux City 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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.
Prepare the filling
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a bowl, mix the grated lemon rind and juice with sugar, sweet milk, corn starch, and butter until smooth. Add the egg yolks and mix well.
Pour the mixture into a pie crust.
Top and bake
Beat the egg white until stiff peaks form and spread it over the top of the pie.
Bake for about 25-30 minutes or until the top is golden.
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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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Milk + corntop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,955 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
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Lemon + corntop 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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Lemon + milktop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,053 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Eggs
- Egg yolks thicken the filling and give it a rich, custardy structure as they set.
- Corn starch
- Starch thickens the lemon filling so it holds its shape when sliced.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the filling and balances the sharpness of the lemon juice.
- Lemon
- Provides the sharp, aromatic citrus flavour that defines the pie.
- Butter
- Adds fat for a smoother texture and richer mouthfeel in the filling.
The step that matters
Beating the egg white to stiff peaks. Egg white must be whipped until stiff peaks form so the topping holds its shape and bakes into a stable, golden meringue layer rather than weeping or sinking into the filling.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, milk, corn, egg, butter):
- Vanillafits better
- Coconutfits better
- Figfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, milk, 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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