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 ↓
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).
Combine the lemon juice, corn starch, ½ cup sugar, milk, and egg yolks in a bowl and mix well.
Pour the mixture into a pie crust and dot with butter.
Bake until set, about 25-30 minutes.
Make the meringue and finish
Beat the egg whites until soft peaks form.
Gradually add the remaining ½ cup sugar until stiff peaks form.
Spread the meringue over the baked pie.
Brown in the oven for a few minutes.
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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Corn + milktop 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
- Lemon juice
- Provides the sour, bright flavor that defines the filling.
- Corn starch
- Thickens the filling as it heats so it sets into a sliceable custard.
- Egg yolks
- Enrich the filling and help it set into a smooth, creamy texture.
- Egg whites
- Whip into a foam that forms the light, airy meringue topping.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the filling and helps stabilize the whipped egg white meringue.
The step that matters
Baking the filling until set. Underbaked filling stays runny and will not slice cleanly, while overbaking can make the cornstarch-thickened custard weep or turn rubbery. Watch for a set center before adding the meringue.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (corn, sugar, milk, egg, butter):
- Vanillafits better
- Coconutfits better
- Figfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against corn, sugar, milk, 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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