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Dessert

A Cheesecake

A sweet dessert made with butter, sugar, eggs, milk, bread, currants, spices, and brandy, baked in a tin.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Eliza Leslie · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

A Cheesecake

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Clean the currants thoroughly, wash them through a colander, wipe them with a towel, and dry them on a dish before the fire.

  2. Set aside a few dry currants for topping, and sprinkle the remaining currants with flour.

  3. Cream the butter and powdered sugar together.

  4. Grate the bread and prepare the spices.

  5. Beat the eggs lightly.

Make the filling

  1. Boil the milk, then add half of the beaten eggs and boil until a curd forms, stirring frequently with a knife.

  2. Add the grated bread to the curd and stir.

  3. Remove the milk, egg, and bread mixture from the heat and gradually stir it into the butter and sugar.

  4. Stir in the remaining half of the beaten eggs.

  5. Add the liquor (brandy and wine) and spices gradually.

  6. Stir in the currants gradually.

Assemble and bake

  1. Prepare the puff-paste beforehand; before baking, scatter the remaining currants on top.

  2. Bake in a soup-plate or in two small square tin patty-pans; if using pans, leave a flap of paste shaped as a half-circle on each side, cut long slits, and turn over to rest on top.

  3. Do not sugar the top.

  4. Bake for half an hour in a quick oven.

  5. Optionally add a few raisins to the currants, cut in half.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

895Calories
28 gProtein
26 gFat
136 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 6 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Grape1/2 cup (76g)62
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49

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

By Eliza Leslie. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  4. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  5. Milk + curranttop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,475 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Fat that creams with sugar to give a rich, tender texture.
Powdered sugar
Adds sweetness and helps trap air when creamed with butter.
Eggs
Set with heat to bind the curd and enrich the filling.
Milk
Liquid that forms a curd with the eggs when heated.
Grated bread
Absorbs liquid and adds body to the filling.
Currants
Provide sweetness and chewy fruit pieces throughout the cake.

The step that matters

Boiling the milk and egg into a curd. Egg proteins set as they heat. Stirring constantly and stopping once a curd forms prevents scorching and stops the eggs from turning grainy or scrambled.

Swap the currant

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Peachfits better
  4. Currantthe original

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