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Dessert

Cheese Pie, or Kuchen

A baked cheese filling with butter, sugar, cream, eggs, cornstarch, and lemon, served on dough.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Cheese Pie, or Kuchen

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the filling

  1. Melt the butter and add it to the cheese.

  2. Mix in the sugar, cream, lemon rind or vanilla, beaten eggs, cornstarch, and lemon juice until well combined.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the mixture onto cookie dough or Kuchen dough.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for 45 minutes to 1 hour, until golden brown and set.

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

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

  2. Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Cheese + creamtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,655 recipes

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

  5. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Cheese
Forms the body of the filling and sets into a creamy, sliceable custard.
Eggs
Coagulate during baking to set the filling and bind it together.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, tender texture to the filling.
Cornstarch
Thickens the filling so it holds its shape when cooled.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps it brown lightly in the oven.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth, mellow flavor.

The step that matters

Bake until set. Eggs and cornstarch thicken as they heat. Underbaking leaves the filling runny, while overbaking can make it dry, cracked, or rubbery, so bake until golden and just set.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Strawberryfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, cheese, sugar, cream, 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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