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Dessert

Cheese Torte

A baked cheese torte made with Zwiebach, cottage cheese, cream, eggs, sugar, butter, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and vanilla match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,287 recipes. Both carry 4-methoxybenzaldehyde, which smells sweet, anise. The science ↓

Cheese Torte

Oven, in the book's wordsA very slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a very slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the crumb base

  1. Grate the Zwiebach and mix with 1 cup sugar and ½ teaspoon cinnamon.

  2. Pour in ¼ pound melted butter and mix well.

  3. Reserve 1 cup of this mixture.

Make the filling

  1. In a separate bowl, beat together 4 eggs and 1 cup sugar.

  2. Add 2 pounds cottage cheese, 1 bottle cream, 1 teaspoon vanilla (or ¼ teaspoon mace), and 2 tablespoons flour. Mix well.

Assemble and bake

  1. Spread the Zwiebach mixture on the bottom and sides of a springform pan.

  2. Pour in the cheese mixture and spread the reserved cup of Zwiebach over the top.

  3. Bake for 1 hour and 20 minutes in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C).

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.

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. Cinnamon + vanillatop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  3. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Cinnamon + flourtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Eggs
Bind the filling and set it into a sliceable, custard-like texture as they cook.
Cottage cheese
Forms the bulk of the filling, giving a dense, creamy body once baked.
Cream
Adds richness and moisture, keeping the filling soft rather than dry.
Flour
Helps stabilise the filling so it holds its shape when cut.
Butter
Moistens the crumb mixture and helps it bind and brown on the base.

The step that matters

Spreading the crumb base in the pan. Pressing the Zwiebach mixture evenly up the sides and across the bottom gives the filling a firm, even crust. Gaps let the filling leak or cook unevenly.

Swap the cinnamon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, egg, cottage cheese, cream, vanilla, flour):

  1. Cinnamonthe original
  2. Nutmegfits about as well
  3. Capersfits less well
  4. Turmericfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, egg, cottage cheese, cream, vanilla, flour. 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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