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Dessert

Cheesecakes of Almonds

A pastry tartlet filled with almond-based cheesecake mixture.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,115 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Cheesecakes of Almonds

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Blanch the sweet and bitter almonds, then pound them very fine.

  2. Combine the ground almonds, egg yolks, and sifted sugar in a bowl.

  3. Beat the mixture well for 10 minutes.

  4. Beat the egg whites with a knife until frothy.

  5. Add the frothy egg whites to the almond mixture.

  6. Stir in the grated lemon rind, apricot jam, nutmeg, and brandy.

Bake and serve

  1. Roll out the puff pastry and cut it into circles to line tartlet pans.

  2. Fill the pastry shells halfway with the cheesecake mixture.

  3. Bake in a preheated oven 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. Almond + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,115 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Almond + apricottop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together852 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

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

  4. Apricot + brandytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together513 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Sweet almonds
Provide the main body and nutty flavor of the filling.
Egg yolks
Enrich the filling and help it set when baked.
Egg whites
Whipped to froth, they lighten the filling and add airy structure.
Sifted sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps it blend smoothly with the almonds.
Apricot jam
Adds sweetness, fruity flavor, and moisture to the filling.
Brandy
Adds aroma and depth of flavor to the filling.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Egg whites hold air only when beaten to a froth; adding them gently keeps the filling light, since overmixing deflates the foam and makes the baked cheesecake denser.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (almond, egg, sugar, apricot, nutmeg, brandy):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Peachfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against almond, egg, sugar, apricot, nutmeg, 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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