Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Cheese Cake
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a brisk oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare the batter
In a bowl, combine the green cheese cream, sugar, and flour.
Add the eggs, chopped citron, currants, and melted butter, then mix until well combined.
Bake
Pour the mixture into a prepared pie crust or baking dish.
Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until set.
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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Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,962 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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 cream
- Forms the creamy base that gives the filling its body and richness.
- Eggs
- Set when baked, giving the filling its firm structure.
- Flour
- Thickens the mixture and adds structure so it holds together when sliced.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps tenderize the texture.
- Melted butter
- Adds fat for richness and a smooth, moist texture.
The step that matters
Bake until set. Eggs coagulate as they heat, which firms the filling. Underbaking leaves it runny in the middle, while overbaking makes it dry, dense, and prone to cracking.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cheese, cream, sugar, flour, egg, butter):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Figfits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against cheese, cream, sugar, flour, 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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