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Dessert

Lemon-custard Pie

A baked pie filled with a lemon custard and topped with meringue.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and butter 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 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 lemon

  1. Grate the lemon rind.

  2. Peel off the thick white skin.

  3. Grate the remaining lemon.

  4. Remove the seeds.

Make the custard

  1. Dissolve the cornstarch in a little water.

  2. In a bowl, combine the eggs, water, lemon juice, butter, sugar, and dissolved cornstarch.

  3. Pour the mixture into a pie crust.

  4. Bake at 350°F (175°C) until set.

Top and finish

  1. Beat one egg white with 1 tablespoon of sugar until stiff peaks form.

  2. Spread the meringue on top of the pie.

  3. Return to the oven until golden brown.

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. Lemon + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

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

  2. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

  5. Egg + lemontop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

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

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

Eggs
Set the custard as they cook, giving it body and structure.
Cornstarch
Thickens the liquid mixture so the custard holds its shape when cut.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and balances the sharpness of the lemon.
Lemon
Provides the tart, aromatic flavor of the custard through its juice and rind.
Butter
Adds richness and a smoother, softer texture to the custard.

The step that matters

Bake at 350°F (175°C) until set. Egg proteins coagulate as they heat, so underbaking leaves the custard runny while overbaking can make it weep or crack. Stop when the center barely jiggles.

Swap the lemon

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

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

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