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Dessert

Another Way to Make Italian Cheese

A sweet, lemony cheese made with sherry, sugar, cream, and lemon rind.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Another Way to Make Italian Cheese

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. In a bowl, mix the sherry, sugar, lemon rind, lemon juice, and cream.

  2. Whisk the mixture for 15 to 20 minutes.

  3. Line an earthenware mold with muslin that has holes.

Set and serve

  1. Pour the cream mixture into the mold.

  2. Refrigerate and turn it out the next day.

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. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  2. Sherry + lemontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,273 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  3. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

  4. Sherry + creamtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

  5. Sherry + sugartop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,141 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Cream
Provides the fat and richness that give the dessert its smooth, creamy body.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavor and helps the cream thicken as it chills.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the acidity of the lemon and sherry.
Sherry
Contributes aroma and a mellow, wine-based flavor to the cream.

The step that matters

Whisk the mixture for 15 to 20 minutes. Whisking incorporates air and thickens the cream, but over-whisking dairy can turn it grainy or separate it into butter and liquid. Stop once the mixture is thick and smooth.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sherry, sugar, cream):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Strawberryfits better
  3. Pineapplefits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sherry, sugar, cream. 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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