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Dessert

Lemon Cheesecakes

A lemon-flavored cheesecake made with sponge biscuits, butter, sugar, cream, eggs, and candied lemon peel.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Lemon Cheesecakes

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

Make and fill

  1. In a bowl, mix the grated lemon rind, lemon juice, crushed sponge biscuits, softened butter, sifted sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon, cream, and beaten eggs until well combined.

  2. Line the pans with puff pastry.

  3. Fill the lined pans with the mixture.

  4. Top with thin slices of candied lemon peel.

Bake

  1. Bake until set and lightly golden.

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. Nutmeg + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Biscuit + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together368 recipes

    Shared aroma: maltol (caramel, sweet).

  3. Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

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

  4. Lemon + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,950 recipes

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

  5. Biscuit + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together312 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set the filling into a custard-like structure as they cook.
Butter
Adds richness and a tender texture to the filling.
Lemon juice
Provides acidity that brightens the flavour and balances the sugar.
Sponge biscuits
Crushed crumbs add body and a light, absorbent texture to the filling.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps tenderise the filling.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, giving a softer, smoother set.

The step that matters

Bake until set and lightly golden. Eggs set as they heat, so underbaking leaves the filling runny while overbaking can make it curdled, cracked and dry. Watch for a set centre and a light golden colour rather than relying only on time.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (biscuit, butter, sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon, cream, egg):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Figfits about as well
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against biscuit, butter, sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon, cream, egg. 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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