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Dessert

Good Old-fashioned Cheesecakes

A baked cheesecake made with milk curd, currants, lemon peel, brandy, and puff pastry lining.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,950 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Good Old-fashioned 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 the filling

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

  2. In a bowl, mix the dry beaten curd from the milk with currants, sugar, cinnamon, egg yolks, lemon peel, scalded cream, and brandy.

Fill and bake

  1. Line tartlet pans with puff pastry and fill them nearly full with the mixture.

  2. Cover the filled pans and lay thin strips of candied lemon peel on top.

  3. Bake for 20 minutes until golden.

  4. Optionally, glaze before serving.

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. Cinnamon + lemontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,950 recipes

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

  2. Currant + brandytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

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

  4. Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

Milk
Its dry beaten curd forms the body of the filling once combined with the other ingredients.
Egg yolks
They set when baked, giving the filling a firm, custard-like structure.
Scalded cream
Adds richness and a smoother, softer texture to the filling.
Currants
Contribute fruity flavor and moisture to the filling.
White sugar
Adds sweetness and helps balance the tartness of the currants and lemon.
Brandy
Adds aroma and a warm, spirited flavor to the filling.

The step that matters

Bake for 20 minutes until golden. Egg yolks set and brown in the oven. Overbaking can make the filling dry or grainy, while underbaking leaves it runny in the center.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, sugar, cinnamon, egg, lemon, cream, brandy):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Raisinfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, sugar, cinnamon, egg, lemon, cream, brandy. 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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