Why it works: Milk and corn are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,955 recipes. Both carry hexanal, which smells green, grassy. 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
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a saucepan, cook corn starch and milk until thick.
Remove from heat and add lemon juice, lemon rind, sugar, and egg yolks.
Pour the mixture into a puff pastry shell.
Top and bake
Beat egg whites until stiff, then gradually add powdered sugar.
Spread the meringue over the custard filling.
Bake until the meringue is lightly 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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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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Lemon + milktop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,053 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, 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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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Lemon and sugar 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
- Corn starch
- Thickens the milk and lemon mixture into a sliceable custard.
- Egg yolks
- Enrich the filling and help it set into a smooth custard.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the filling and balances the sharpness of the lemon.
- Lemons
- Provide the acidity and aroma that give the filling its lemon flavour.
- Egg whites
- Whip into a stiff foam that forms the meringue topping.
- Powdered sugar
- Stabilises the whipped egg whites and sweetens the meringue.
The step that matters
Cooking the cornstarch mixture until thick. Cornstarch thickens only when the milk mixture reaches a full simmer and is stirred. Undercooked starch leaves the filling runny and it will not hold a clean slice once the pie cools.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, milk, corn, egg):
- Vanillafits better
- Coconutfits better
- Figfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, milk, corn, 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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