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Curd Cheese Cakes

A baked pastry filled with a curd cheese mixture of sour milk curd, eggs, milk, currants, sugar, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,685 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Curd Cheese Cakes

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the filling

  1. In a bowl, beat the sour milk curd with the eggs, milk, salt, currants, nutmeg, and sugar until well combined.

Assemble and bake

  1. Line tart tins or patty pans with the rolled-out puff pastry.

  2. Fill the lined tins with the mixture.

  3. Bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) until nicely browned.

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. Milk + nutmegtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,685 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Milk + curranttop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,475 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  3. Currant + nutmegtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,983 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  4. Egg + nutmegtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together24,744 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

Egg and nutmeg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 24,744 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

Sour milk curd
Forms the body of the filling, giving the cakes a soft, creamy, cheese-like texture.
Eggs
Bind the filling and set during baking, giving the cakes structure.
Milk
Adds moisture and loosens the filling so it bakes smoothly.
Currants
Add pockets of chewy sweetness and fruit flavour throughout the filling.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps the surface brown in the oven.
Puff pastry
Forms the crisp, flaky shell that holds the filling.

The step that matters

Bake until nicely browned. The eggs set as the filling heats, so the cakes firm up and hold their shape. Taking them out too early leaves the centre loose, while over-baking dries the curd and toughens the custard-like texture.

Swap the currant

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, egg, nutmeg, 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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