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Hq Vegetarian Cookery

A cheese pastry made with cream cheese, bread crumbs, eggs, currants, sugar, nutmeg, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Payne, A. G. (Arthur Gay), 1840-1894 · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 20 ingredients
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Why it works: Cheese and parmesan cheese match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,041 recipes. Both carry ethyl 2-methylbutyrate, which smells fruity, apple. The science ↓

Hq Vegetarian Cookery

Ingredients

Directions

Make the filling

  1. Mix two pounds of cream cheese, three-quarters of a pound of fine bread crumbs (rubbed through a wire sieve), and six eggs well beaten.

  2. Add four ounces of washed grocer's currants, one ounce of sugar, and half a grated nutmeg.

  3. Add a little cream or milk.

  4. When the mixture is thoroughly mixed, add enough flour to make a paste that can be rolled into balls.

Shape and fry

  1. Roll the mixture into balls no larger than a walnut.

  2. Flour the balls, flatten them into little cakes, and fry them until a nice brown color.

By Payne, A. G. (Arthur Gay), 1840-1894. 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 + parmesan cheesetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,041 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  2. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  3. Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  5. Butter + parmesan cheesetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,163 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Cream cheese
Provides the rich, moist body of the filling.
Bread crumbs
Absorbs moisture and gives the filling body so it holds its shape.
Eggs
Bind the filling together and help set it as it cooks.
Flour
Stiffens the mixture into a paste that can be rolled and shaped.
Currants
Add pockets of sweetness and chewy texture to the filling.

The step that matters

Fry until a nice brown color. Frying in hot fat browns the flour coating through the Maillard reaction, adding flavor and a crisp surface, while the filling must heat through to set. Too little heat leaves the cakes greasy and pale.

Flavor stand-ins for the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, cheese, nutmeg, butter, flour, garlic, parmesan cheese):

  1. Avocadobetter flavor fit
  2. Figbetter flavor fit
  3. Plumbetter flavor fit
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, cheese, nutmeg, butter, flour, garlic, parmesan cheese. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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