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Dessert

Another Way to Make Curd Cheese Cakes

A baked dessert made from curdled milk, butter, almonds, sugar, citron, lemon peel, eggs, brandy, and currants.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Brandy and currant are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,057 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Another Way to Make Curd Cheese Cakes

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the curd

  1. Add a little rennet to the milk and let it curdle; drain off the whey.

  2. Rub the curd through a sieve with the butter.

Mix and fill

  1. Mix in the sweet and bitter almonds, sugar, candied citron, lemon peel, eggs, brandy, and currants. Mix all ingredients well together.

  2. Line patty-pans with pastry and fill them with the mixture.

Bake

  1. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until set.

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. Brandy + curranttop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Almond + lemontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

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

  5. Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,053 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Milk
Curdles with rennet to form the curd that makes up the body of the cakes.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, giving the curd a smoother, softer texture.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and help it set firm when baked.
Sweet and bitter almonds
Add nutty flavour and body to the filling.
Loaf sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the filling brown lightly in the oven.
Currants
Add chewy pockets of sweetness and fruitiness throughout the filling.

The step that matters

Rub the curd through a sieve with the butter. If the curd is not drained well or pressed fine, lumps and excess whey remain, leaving the filling grainy and watery. Thorough draining and sieving give a smooth, cohesive mixture that sets evenly when baked.

Swap the currant

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, butter, almond, sugar, lemon, egg, 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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