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Dessert

Lemon Pie

A citrus custard filling made from lemon zest, juice, sugar, water, egg yolks, cornstarch, and butter, poured into a pie crust.

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 Pie

Ingredients

Directions

Make the filling

  1. In a saucepan, combine the grated lemon, lemon juice, sugar, and water.

  2. Heat the mixture over medium heat until it begins to boil.

  3. In a separate bowl, whisk the egg yolks and cornstarch together.

  4. Slowly add a small amount of the hot lemon mixture to the egg yolks, whisking constantly.

  5. Pour the egg yolk mixture back into the saucepan, stirring continuously until thickened.

  6. Remove from heat and stir in the butter until melted.

Assemble and serve

  1. Pour the filling into a pie crust and let it cool before serving.

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
Egg yolks thicken the hot lemon mixture into a smooth, custard-like filling as they set.
Cornstarch
Starch thickens the filling and helps it hold its shape as it cools.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and balances the sharp acidity of the lemon.
Lemons
Provide the main lemon flavour and acidity, with zest adding aroma.
Butter
Adds richness and a silky texture to the finished filling.

The step that matters

Adding the hot lemon mixture to the yolks. If the hot mixture is poured in too quickly or not whisked constantly, the egg yolks can scramble. Adding it slowly while whisking gently warms the yolks so they blend smoothly and thicken evenly.

Swap the lemon

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, 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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