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Dessert

Very Superior Lemon Cheese-cakes

A baked lemon custard made with sugar, lemon rind, juice, eggs, butter, and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Very Superior Lemon Cheese-cakes

Oven, in the book's wordsA rather quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a rather quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the filling

  1. Mix the sugar with the grated lemon rinds.

  2. Pour in the strained lemon juice.

  3. Gradually add the beaten egg yolks and egg whites.

  4. Dissolve the butter in the cream and add to the mixture.

  5. Thicken the mixture over gentle heat and let it cool slightly.

Bake

  1. Half-fill small tin molds lined with pastry and bake for 30 minutes at 400°F (200°C).

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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

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

  3. Lemon + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  4. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks and whites
Set the filling into a rich, custard-like structure as they thicken with gentle heat.
Butter
Adds fat for a smooth, rich texture and a tender mouthfeel.
Lemon juice
Provides acidity for bright flavour and helps the egg mixture thicken.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and balances the sharpness of the lemon.
Rich cream
Adds moisture and richness, softening the set custard.

The step that matters

Thicken the mixture over gentle heat. Egg proteins set gradually; if the heat is too high the eggs can curdle or scramble, leaving a grainy rather than smooth filling. Gentle heat lets the custard thicken evenly.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Strawberryfits about as well
  3. Raspberryfits about as well
  4. Lemonthe original

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