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Dessert

Cottage Cheese Pie

A baked pie filled with a sweet cottage cheese custard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Cottage Cheese Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure. The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Stir the cottage cheese until free from lumps.

  3. Add the salt, sugar, and cinnamon to the cheese.

  4. Beat the eggs and sour cream together, then mix into the cheese mixture.

  5. Line a pie tin with pastry for custard pie.

Fill and bake

  1. Fill the pastry with the cheese mixture.

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

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

  2. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Cottage cheese + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together601 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  4. Cottage cheese + creamtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together146 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

  5. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Cottage cheese
Forms the body of the filling, giving it a soft, creamy, sliceable texture when set.
Eggs
Bind the filling and set it into a firm custard as it bakes.
Sour cream
Adds moisture and richness, keeping the filling smooth and tender.
Granulated sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps it brown lightly at the edges.

The step that matters

Stir the cottage cheese until free from lumps. Lumps left in the cheese will not blend out during baking, leaving a grainy texture. Working the curds smooth before adding eggs and sour cream gives an even, silky custard.

Swap the cinnamon

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cinnamonthe original
  3. Dillfits less well
  4. Celeryfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against cottage cheese, egg, sugar, 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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