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Ckeams, Custards, and Cheese-cak'es

A custard-like cheese-cake made from curds, sugar, butter, eggs, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Payne, A. G. (Arthur Gay), 1840-1894 · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and 11,318 recipes mention both. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Ckeams, Custards, and Cheese-cak'es

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the curds

  1. Take any quantity of milk, let it nearly boil, then add a little rennet or a glass of sherry; strain the curds well.

  2. Take half a pound of curds and press them in a napkin to extract the moisture.

Make the filling

  1. Take six ounces of lump sugar and rub the sugar on the outside of a couple of oranges or lemons.

  2. Dissolve this sugar in two ounces of butter made hot in a tin in the oven; mix this with the curds, with two ounces of powdered ratafias, and a little grated nutmeg—about half a nutmeg to this quantity will be required; add also six yolks of eggs.

  3. Mix this well together, fill the tartlet cases made from puff paste, and bake them in the oven.

  4. It is often customary to place in the centre of each cheese-cake a thin strip of candied peel.

Bake and serve

  1. As soon as the cheese-cakes are done, take them out of the oven; if the mixture is of a bad colour, finish it off with a salamander, but do not let them remain in the oven too long, so that the pastry becomes brittle and dried up.

  2. These cheese-cakes can be made on a larger scale than the ordinary one; suppose we make them the size of a breakfast saucer, a very rich and delicious cheese-cake can be made by adding some chopped dried cherries to the mixture.

  3. Sometimes ordinary grocer's currants are added and the ratafias omitted; sultana raisins can be used instead of currants, and by many are much preferred.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Butter + nutmegtop 16% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together24,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together41,227 recipes

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

  4. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Egg + nutmegtop 17% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together24,744 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Egg and nutmeg share little aroma chemistry, yet 24,744 recipes mention both: they likely 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

Curds
Form the set body of the cheese-cake filling once pressed dry.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, and enriches the filling's texture.
Eggs
Yolks bind the filling and help it set when baked.
Powdered ratafias
Add almond-like flavour and absorb moisture in the filling.
Lump sugar
Sweetens the filling and browns lightly in the oven.

The step that matters

Removing the cheese-cakes from the oven. Leaving them in too long makes the pastry brittle and dry. Egg-based fillings also toughen and dry when overbaked, so take them out as soon as they are set.

Flavor stand-ins for the lemon

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

  1. Vanillaabout as good a flavor fit
  2. Lemonthe original
  3. Raisinabout as good a flavor fit
  4. Figabout as good a flavor fit

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