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Dessert

Cheese Cake

A baked dessert made from green cheese, eggs, sugar, milk, vanilla, and cinnamon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Vanilla and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,287 recipes. Both carry 4-methoxybenzaldehyde, which smells sweet, anise. The science ↓

Cheese Cake

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).

  2. Rub the green cheese and egg yolks together until smooth.

  3. Dissolve the sugar in the milk.

  4. Beat the egg whites until frothy and fold them into the cheese and yolk mixture.

  5. Add the milk and sugar mixture to the cheese and yolks.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the mixture onto a baking sheet and sprinkle with cinnamon.

  2. Bake slowly, changing the position in the oven to ensure a well-baked bottom.

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. Vanilla + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).

  2. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  3. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Green cheese
Forms the body of the cheesecake, giving it a rich, dense texture when baked.
Eggs
Egg yolks enrich the mixture and whites, whipped and folded in, add lightness and help it set.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and helps give the baked surface a light browning.
Milk
Adds moisture and loosens the mixture so it bakes into a soft, custard-like set.

The step that matters

Bake slowly and reposition the pan. Egg-rich custards set through gentle heat; baking too hot can curdle or toughen them, and uneven oven heat can leave the bottom underbaked while the top overcooks.

“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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