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Dessert

Cheese Cakes.

A sweet baked cake made with sugar, butter, eggs, biscuit powder, lemon juice, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Cheese Cakes.

Why it works: Butter and milk 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 ↓

Cheese Cakes.

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Make the filling

  1. In a bowl, break the eggs and add sugar and melted butter. Stir until light and smooth.

  2. Add lemon juice, biscuit powder, and milk as needed to achieve a smooth mixture.

Bake

  1. Line tartlet pans with puff pastry and fill with the mixture.

  2. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven 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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Biscuit + lemontop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together697 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  3. Lemon + milktop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,053 recipes

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

  4. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  5. Butter + biscuittop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,009 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set the filling into a firm, sliceable custard as they bake.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, tender texture to the filling.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps it blend smoothly with the eggs and butter.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavor and balances the sweetness.
Finger biscuits
Add dry crumb body and a light biscuity flavor to the filling.

The step that matters

Bake until set. Eggs firm up as their proteins coagulate with heat. Pulling the tarts too early leaves a runny filling, while overbaking can make the custard grainy and rubbery.

Swap the lemon

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, egg, biscuit, milk. 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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