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Dessert

Lemon Cheesecakes

A baked dessert made with butter, powdered sugar, lemon zest and juice, Savoy biscuit, and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and biscuit match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 697 recipes. Both carry nonanal, which smells fat, citrus. The science ↓

Lemon Cheesecakes

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the filling

  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan.

  2. Add the powdered sugar and grated lemon rind, mixing well.

  3. Soak the Savoy biscuit in the lemon juice.

  4. Beat the egg yolks and egg whites separately, then combine them.

  5. Mix everything together in the saucepan and cook over low heat, stirring until thick.

Bake and serve

  1. Line patty pans with the mixture and fill them halfway.

  2. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven 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. Lemon + biscuittop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together697 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  2. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

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

  3. Butter + biscuittop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,009 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  4. Sugar + biscuittop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Yolks and whites thicken the mixture and set it as it bakes.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, giving the filling a smooth, tender texture.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the filling and dissolves smoothly into the melted butter.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity and bright lemon flavour that balances the sweetness.
Savoy biscuit
Soaks up lemon juice, adding moisture and body to the filling.

The step that matters

Cook over low heat, stirring until thick. Egg proteins thicken gently at moderate heat. Too much heat or too little stirring can scramble the eggs into lumps, leaving the filling grainy instead of smooth.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits about as well
  3. Lemonthe original
  4. Coconutfits about as well

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