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Dessert

Italian Cheese

A cheese made from thick cream, lemon juice, brandy, sherry, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Brandy and sherry are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,209 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Italian Cheese

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mixture

  1. In a bowl, whisk together the cream, lemon juice, brandy, sherry, and sugar for 12 minutes.

  2. Line a hair sieve with thin muslin and pour the mixture into it to drain.

Drain and set

  1. Let it stand for 24 hours.

  2. Once drained, remove the cheese from the muslin for use.

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. Brandy + sherrytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,209 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  3. Cream + brandytop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,635 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

  4. Lemon + sherrytop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,273 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

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

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

Cream
Provides fat and body, giving the cheese its rich, creamy texture.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that thickens the cream and helps it firm into a curd.
Brandy
Adds aroma and a warm, spirited flavor to the cheese.
Sherry
Adds aroma and depth of flavor alongside the brandy.
Sugar
Adds sweetness to balance the sharpness of the lemon juice.

The step that matters

Draining and standing. Letting the mixture drain fully and stand for the full 24 hours allows excess liquid to run off and the curd to firm. Removing it too early leaves the cheese soft and wet.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, brandy, sherry, sugar):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Apricotfits better
  3. Strawberryfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, brandy, sherry, 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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