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Dessert

Vanilla Cheesecakes

A vanilla-flavored cheesecake made with eggs, butter, sugar, vanilla, brandy, pastry, and optional raspberry or currant jelly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Vanilla and raspberry work together. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 950 recipes. Both carry ethyl benzoate, which smells fruity, sweet. The science ↓

Vanilla 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.

Make the filling

  1. Melt the butter in a copper saucepan.

  2. Crush the lump sugar and stir it into the melted butter.

  3. Pour the butter mixture gradually into the beaten eggs, straining the eggs as you mix.

  4. Beat the mixture continuously until thick.

  5. If desired, add a grated Savoy biscuit for texture.

Fill and bake

  1. Place a little preserve in the pastry before filling with the mixture.

  2. Fill patty pans nearly to the top with the mixture.

  3. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until set.

Serve

  1. Serve hot or 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. Vanilla + raspberrytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together950 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl benzoate (fruity, sweet).

  2. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Vanilla + brandytop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together806 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Brandy + raspberrytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together235 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-hex-3-en-1-ol (freshly cut grass green and herbaceous notes).

  5. Butter + vanillatop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,050 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Eggs
Set the filling into a thick, sliceable custard when baked.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, tender texture to the filling.
Lump sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps give it a delicate crumb.
Raspberry or red currant jelly
Adds fruit sweetness and acidity that contrasts with the rich filling.

The step that matters

Pour the butter mixture gradually into the beaten eggs. Adding warm butter too quickly can scramble or curdle the eggs. Pouring slowly while beating keeps the mixture smooth and emulsified, so it sets evenly.

Swap the raspberry

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

  1. Figfits better
  2. Apricotfits better
  3. Peachfits about as well
  4. Raspberrythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, butter, sugar, vanilla, 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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