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Dessert

Lemon Pie and Taets

A lemon pie made with puff pastry, lemon juice, rind, eggs, cornstarch, sugar, water, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 Pie and Taets

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

  1. Grate the rind and squeeze the juice from the lemons.

  2. Beat the eggs until light.

  3. Melt the butter.

  4. Mix the lemon juice, grated rind, eggs, cornstarch, sugar, water, and melted butter together.

  5. Roll out the puff pastry.

  6. Line the tins with the puff pastry.

  7. Brush the pastry with the egg white.

Bake and serve

  1. Fill the lined tins with the lemon mixture.

  2. Bake at 350°F (175°C) until set.

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. Sugar + buttertop 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. Lemon + eggtop 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 lemon filling and add richness and body as it bakes.
Cornstarch
Thickens the lemon mixture so it holds its shape when sliced.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and balances the sourness of the lemon juice.
Lemons
Provide the acidity and aroma that define the filling's flavour.
Butter
Adds fat for a smooth, rich texture and flavour in the filling.
Puff pastry
Forms the flaky crust that holds the filling.

The step that matters

Bake at 350°F (175°C) until set. Cornstarch and egg thicken the filling as it heats. Underbaking leaves it runny, while overbaking can make the eggs curdle and weep, so watch for the filling to set.

Swap the lemon

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, 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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