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Dessert

Lemon Cheese Cake

A baked lemon filling in a puff paste shell, topped with whipped egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Rice and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,366 recipes. Both carry (e,e)-2,4-decadienal, which smells fatty, deep fried. The science ↓

Lemon Cheese Cake

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.

Prepare

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

  2. Cream the butter and sugar together.

  3. Beat in the egg yolks.

  4. Mix the ground rice with a little milk until smooth.

  5. Add the ground rice mixture to the butter mixture.

  6. Add the juice and grated rind of the lemons.

  7. Pour the mixture into a pie dish lined with puff paste.

Bake and finish

  1. Bake for 1 hour.

  2. Whip the egg whites with a little lemon juice and sugar until stiff.

  3. Heap the whipped egg whites on top of the cake.

  4. Return to the oven until slightly browned.

  5. Serve cold.

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. Rice + lemontop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,366 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  2. Butter + ricetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,645 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

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

  4. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Yolks enrich and bind the filling, while whipped whites form the light topping.
Butter
Adds richness and a tender texture to the filling.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps the whites whip to a stable foam.
Ground rice
Thickens the filling so it sets as it bakes.
Lemons
Provide acidity and aroma from the juice and grated rind.

The step that matters

Whipping the egg whites until stiff. Egg whites need to be beaten until they hold firm peaks; under-whipped whites will collapse and weep, and over-whipped whites turn grainy and dry. Stiff whites trap air that gives the topping lift when it is returned to the oven.

Swap the lemon

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, egg, sugar, rice. 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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