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Dessert

Norfolk Cheese Cakes

A sweet cheese cake from Norfolk made with cheese curd, butter, almonds, sugar, eggs, cream, brandy, mace or nutmeg, and optional candied peel and currants.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 ↓

Norfolk Cheese Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

Make the filling

  1. Beat the cheese curd and butter together until smooth.

  2. Add the almonds, sifted sugar, eggs, cream, brandy, mace or nutmeg, and optional ingredients if using. Mix until well combined.

Bake

  1. Line pattypans with pastry and fill with the mixture.

  2. Bake for 20 minutes or until set.

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. Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Butter + almondtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,245 recipes

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

  5. Cheese + creamtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,655 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Cheese curd
Forms the body of the filling, giving it a soft, dense, custard-like texture when set.
Eggs
Bind the filling and set it as they cook, giving structure to the cakes.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, contributing to a tender texture and smooth mouthfeel.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the filling brown lightly in the oven.
Almonds
Add nutty flavour and a slightly firm, toasted texture to the filling.

The step that matters

Baking until set. Eggs set as their proteins coagulate with heat, so the filling firms into a cake. Removing it too early leaves a runny centre, while overbaking makes it dry and rubbery.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cinnamonfits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cheese, butter, almond, sugar, egg, cream, 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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