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Dessert

Cheesecakes

A baked dessert made with milk curd, currants, sugar, spices, lemon peel, eggs, cream, brandy, and puff pastry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg 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 ↓

Cheesecakes

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare

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

  2. Line patty pans with a thin layer of puff pastry.

Make and bake

  1. In a large bowl, mix the milk curd, currants, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, lemon peel, egg yolks, egg whites, scalded cream, and brandy until well combined.

  2. Half fill each pastry with the cheesecake mixture.

  3. 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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Nutmeg + lemontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

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

  3. Cinnamon + lemontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,950 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Milk curd
Forms the body of the filling, setting into a soft, sliceable custard-like texture.
Egg yolks
Add richness and help the filling set as it bakes.
Egg whites
Add structure and lift, helping the filling set firm yet light.
Currants
Add chewy pockets of sweetness and fruity flavour throughout the filling.
Scalded cream
Adds fat and moisture, giving the filling a smoother, richer texture.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps it brown lightly in the oven.

The step that matters

Bake until set and lightly golden. Egg proteins set as they heat, so underbaking leaves the filling runny while overbaking makes it dry and cracked. Watch for a firm centre with a slight wobble and a light golden top.

Swap the currant

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Orangefits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, lemon, egg, 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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Lemon 96Almond 47Rice 25Apple 21Curd 14Orange 14 See all 71 →

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