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Dessert

Cheesecakes, Almond

A tartlet of almond-based cheesecake baked in puff pastry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and lemon 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 ↓

Cheesecakes, Almond

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Blanch and pound the sweet and bitter almonds.

  2. In a bowl, mix the ground almonds with sugar, butter, lemon zest, lemon juice, and sherry or brandy.

  3. Line tartlet tins with puff pastry.

Fill and bake

  1. Just before filling, add the egg yolks and egg whites to the mixture and stir well.

  2. Fill the lined tins with the mixture.

  3. Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for 15-20 minutes.

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. Almond + lemontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Almond + buttertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,245 recipes

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

  3. Almond + sherrytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together517 recipes

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

  4. Butter + sherrytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,505 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  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

Sweet almonds
Provide the main body and nutty flavour of the filling.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a tender, moist texture.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps it brown during baking.
Egg yolks
Enrich the filling and help it set into a custard-like texture.
Egg whites
Add lightness and help the filling set as it bakes.

The step that matters

Adding the eggs just before filling. Egg proteins begin to set once mixed with other ingredients, and the whites lose their lift if left standing. Adding them last and filling the tins promptly keeps the batter light and lets it set evenly in the oven.

Swap the lemon

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against almond, sugar, butter, sherry, 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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