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Dessert

Lemon Cheese Cakes

A lemon custard cake made with butter, sugar, eggs, lemon rind and juice, topped with pounded almonds.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Lemon Cheese Cakes

Why it works: Lemon and almond match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,655 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Lemon Cheese Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the lemon filling

  1. In a saucepan, combine butter, sugar, eggs, lemon rind, and lemon juice.

  2. Stir over low heat until the sugar dissolves and the mixture thickens to a honey-like consistency.

  3. Pour the mixture into small jars and store in a dry place.

Bake and serve

  1. When ready to use, line small tins with pastry and fill with the lemon mixture.

  2. Bake until set and top with pounded almonds.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Lemon + almondtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Butter + almondtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,245 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 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

Eggs
Set and thicken the filling as they cook, giving it a custard-like body.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, silky texture to the filling.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps it thicken into a honey-like consistency.
Lemon juice
Provides the sharp acidity that balances the sweetness and gives the filling its flavour.

The step that matters

Stir over low heat until the mixture thickens. Eggs coagulate at high temperatures and can scramble or curdle if the heat is too strong. Gentle, steady low heat lets the sugar dissolve and the egg proteins thicken the mixture smoothly.

Swap the lemon

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

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

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