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Berry Cheesecake in a Glass

Hungry but in a hurry? This easy berrylicious cheesecake can be whipped-up in a flash.

By bbcfood · From Open Recipes · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and ginger match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and 5,154 recipes mention both. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

The recipe

Serves 2
Prep30 min
Cook10 min

Ingredients

Contains: milk, wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. Put the mixed berries, golden caster sugar and a splash of water into a small saucepan. Squeeze in the lemon juice and cook over medium heat for about 5 minutes, until the berries soften and release their juice. Set aside to cool.

  2. Crush the ginger biscuits finely in a bag with a rolling pin. Melt the butter and stir it into the crumbs until evenly damp.

  3. Divide the buttery crumbs between two serving glasses and press them firmly into the bottoms. Chill while you make the topping.

  4. Finely grate the zest of the lemon. Beat the mascarpone with the icing sugar and half the zest until smooth and thick.

  5. Spoon the cooled berry mixture over the biscuit bases, leaving a little space at the top of each glass.

  6. Spoon or pipe the mascarpone mixture on top of the berries. Sprinkle with the remaining lemon zest and chill for at least 30 minutes before serving.

By bbcfood. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Lemon + gingertop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together5,154 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Sugar + biscuittop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  3. Lemon + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together41,197 recipes

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

  4. Sugar + gingertop 9% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together14,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  5. Sugar + lemontop 10% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together53,530 recipes

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

Sugar and ginger share little aroma chemistry, yet 14,053 recipes mention both: they likely work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

Flavor stand-ins for the ginger

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

  1. Cinnamonbetter flavor fit
  2. Nutmegbetter flavor fit
  3. Parsleyabout as good a flavor fit
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, lemon, biscuit, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).