Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Lemon Cheese Cake
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 cake
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Cream together 2 cups of sugar and ½ cup of butter.
Add ¾ cup of sweet milk and mix well.
In a separate bowl, beat the 6 egg whites until stiff peaks form.
Fold the egg whites into the mixture gently.
Sift together 3 cups of flour and 3 teaspoons of baking powder, then add to the mixture.
Make the lemon filling
In a saucepan, combine the grated rind and juice of 2 lemons, 3 egg yolks, ½ cup of butter, and 1 cup of sugar.
Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until thickened like jelly.
Assemble
Use the lemon mixture as a filling between the cake layers.
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.
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,053 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
- Whipped whites trap air, giving the cake lift and a light, airy crumb.
- Egg yolks
- Yolks thicken the lemon filling as they cook, setting it into a jelly-like texture.
- Flour
- Forms the structure of the cake crumb as it sets in the oven.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas when heated, helping the cake rise.
- Butter
- Adds richness and tenderness to the cake and fat to the lemon filling.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and filling and helps give the batter its tender texture.
The step that matters
Cooking the lemon filling over low heat. Egg yolks can curdle or scramble if overheated. Low heat with constant stirring lets the yolks thicken the filling gently and evenly.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, milk, egg, flour):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Figfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, milk, egg, flour. 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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