Why it works: Almond and apricot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 852 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓
Madame WERNER’s Rosenvik Cheese-cakes
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Make the filling
Blanch and pound the almonds to a fine paste with a few drops of lemon juice or water.
Gradually mix in the whisked eggs while beating continuously.
Slowly add the powdered sugar and keep beating the mixture.
Incorporate the grated lemon rind and then the strained lemon juice.
Pour in the liquefied butter in small portions and whisk lightly for several minutes.
Thicken the mixture over low heat like boiled custard.
Fill and bake
Pour the mixture into small pans or jars, or fill pattypans lined with fine pastry one third full.
Top with a layer of marmalade if desired, then pour more mixture on top.
Bake in a moderate oven (350°F / 175°C) for 15 to 20 minutes.
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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Almond + apricottop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together852 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Almond + lemontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,655 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
-
Almond + buttertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,245 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
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Lemon + apricottop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,098 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Butter + apricottop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,458 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
- Almonds
- Provide the bulk of the paste, giving the cheese-cakes their rich, nutty body.
- Eggs
- Set on heating to bind the mixture and give it a light, custard-like structure.
- Powdered sugar
- Sweetens the filling and helps it blend smoothly into the eggs.
- Butter
- Adds fat for a tender, rich texture in the finished filling.
- Lemon rind and juice
- Add aroma and acidity that brighten the sweetness of the filling.
The step that matters
Thicken the mixture over low heat like boiled custard. Eggs set gently over low heat and can curdle or scramble if overheated, so the mixture must be stirred and kept at a low temperature until it thickens.
Swap the lemon
The recipe marks lemon as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (almond, egg, sugar, butter, apricot):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Peachfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against almond, egg, sugar, butter, apricot. 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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