Name: Lemon Cheese-cakes
Ingredients: 1 large lemon (rind and juice); ½ cup fine sugar; 3 large eggs (yolks only, plus 1 egg white); ¼ cup all-purpose flour; ½ cup heavy cream; ¼ cup unsalted butter (softened); 1 tablespoon orange-flower brandy

Why it works: Lemon and orange match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Lemon Cheese-cakes

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

1 large lemon (rind and juice)
½ cup fine sugar
3 large eggs (yolks only, plus 1 egg white)
¼ cup all-purpose flour
½ cup heavy cream
¼ cup unsalted butter (softened)
1 tablespoon orange-flower brandy

Directions

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

Make the filling

Zest the lemon and mix the zest with the sugar.
Crush the mixture and add the yolks of three eggs and one whisked egg white; beat thoroughly.
Add the flour, cream, softened butter, and strained lemon juice gradually while stirring quickly.

Assemble and bake

Line small tart pans with thin puff pastry and fill them halfway with the mixture.
Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) for 30 minutes.

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.

Lemon + orangetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together10,634 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

Flour and butter 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: Thicken and set the filling while adding richness and structure.
Flour: Gives the filling body so it holds its shape as it bakes.
Heavy cream: Adds moisture and a smooth, rich texture to the filling.
Unsalted butter: Adds fat for a tender, rich texture.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and helps balance the lemon's sharpness.
Lemon: Provides acidity and bright citrus aroma from the zest and juice.

Swap the orange

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

Vanillafits better
Raisinfits better
Raspberryfits about as well
Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lemon, sugar, egg, flour, cream, butter, 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.