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Dessert

Curd Cheesecakes

A cheesecake made with cheese curd, butter, almonds, orange‑flower water, sugar, eggs, cream, and baked in puff pastry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and orange are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,125 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Curd Cheesecakes

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. Beat the cheese curd and butter in a mortar until it resembles butter.

  2. Pound the almonds with orange-flower water.

Make the filling

  1. Mix in the sugar, egg yolks, egg whites, and cream thoroughly for about 15 minutes.

Bake

  1. Line a baking dish with puff pastry.

  2. Pour the mixture into the pastry and bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven.

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 + orangetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,125 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

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

  3. Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Cheese curd
Forms the body of the filling, giving it a dense, creamy texture when baked.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, keeping the filling smooth and tender.
Almonds
Contribute nutty flavour and body to the filling once pounded.
Egg yolks
Enrich the filling and help it set into a custard-like texture.
Egg whites
Add lift and structure, helping the filling set during baking.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and aids browning in the oven.

The step that matters

Mixing the filling thoroughly. Beating the sugar, yolks, whites and cream evenly keeps the filling smooth and uniform, so it sets evenly rather than in pockets or curdled layers during baking.

Swap the orange

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Coconutfits better
  4. Orangethe original

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