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Dessert

Cheese Tarts

A pastry case filled with a mixture of cheese, butter, eggs, salt, and cayenne, baked until set.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Landmarks Club · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Cheese and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,962 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Cheese Tarts

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Line patty pans with pastry rolled very thin.

  2. Grate two ounces of cheese and mix with one ounce of warmed butter. Add salt and cayenne.

  3. Add the yolks of two eggs whisked till firm. Add the beaten white of one egg.

  4. Half fill the pastry cases with the mixture.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake in a moderate oven until the cheese mixture is set and the pastry slightly colored.

  2. Sprinkle grated cheese and chopped parsley on each before serving.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

299Calories
14 gProtein
26 gFat
2 gCarbs

Counts 5 of 6 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 5 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Cheese1 oz (28g) cheddar113
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Cayenne1 tsp (1.8g)6
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Pastrynot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Landmarks Club. 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. See the original page.

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. Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Cheese + eggtop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,253 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Cheese
Provides rich savoury flavour and helps the filling set as it bakes.
Eggs
Bind the filling and set it into a firm, custard-like texture when baked.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth texture to the cheese mixture.

The step that matters

Bake until the filling is just set. Egg proteins coagulate as they heat, so the filling sets firm when done. Overbaking makes it dry, rubbery and prone to cracking, while underbaking leaves it runny in the centre.

“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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