Name: Curds and Cream
Ingredients: milk; cream; sugar; white wine; lemon; raspberry jam; currant jelly

Why it works: Lemon and raspberry are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,109 recipes. Both carry alpha-pinene, which smells pine, turpentine. The science ↓

Curds and Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Turn the milk to make cheesecakes until the curd is firm.
Drop the curd into a mold with holes, adding more as the whey runs off.
If you prefer a firmer curd, press it down; otherwise, leave it light.
Let it sit in the mold for about 2 hours.
Turn it out into a glass dish or bowl.
Serve with plain or whipped cream, sugar, white wine, lemon, raspberry jam, or currant jelly.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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.

Lemon + raspberrytop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,109 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Raspberry + curranttop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together366 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl benzoate (fruity, sweet).
White wine + lemontop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,832 recipes

Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).
White wine + raspberrytop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together71 recipes

Shared aroma: damascenone (apple, rose).

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

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, cream, sugar, white wine, lemon, raspberry):

Vanillafits better
Blackberryfits better
Peachfits better
Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, cream, sugar, white wine, lemon, raspberry. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.