Why it works: Sugar and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 122,807 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Strawberry Cheesecakes
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the filling
Remove the stalks from the strawberries and bruise them in a bowl with a wooden spoon.
Mix in the powdered sugar and beaten eggs until well combined.
Fill and bake
Line patty-pans with pastry and fill them three-quarters full with the mixture.
Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for 10 minutes.
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.
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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Strawberries
- Provide the main flavour and moisture, which soften and blend into the filling as they are bruised.
- Eggs
- Bind the filling and set as it bakes, giving it a firmer, sliceable texture.
- Powdered sugar
- Sweetens the filling and dissolves smoothly into the strawberry and egg mixture.
- Pastry
- Forms the crisp case that holds the filling while it bakes.
The step that matters
Bake until the filling sets. Egg proteins set with heat, so the filling needs the full baking time at the stated temperature. Underbaking leaves it runny, while overbaking can make the eggs rubbery and dry.
“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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