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Dessert

Ramakins

A cheese cake made with grated Cheshire and Gloucester cheeses, butter, eggs, and a boiled French roll.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

Ramakins

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mixture

  1. In a mortar, beat together the grated Cheshire cheese, Gloucester cheese, and butter.

  2. Add the egg yolks and the soft French roll, mixing until smooth.

  3. Fold in the beaten egg whites gently.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into small paper pans that are longer than square.

  2. Bake in a Dutch oven until golden brown.

  3. Serve hot.

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Egg + creamtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together42,166 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Egg and cream barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 42,166 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

Cheshire cheese
Adds rich savoury flavour and fat, giving the cakes body and a firm, sliceable crumb.
Gloucester cheese
Contributes savoury flavour and fat, helping the mixture set and brown during baking.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a tender texture in the baked cakes.
Egg yolks
Enrich the mixture and help it set as the proteins coagulate in the oven.
Egg whites
Beaten to foam, they lighten the mixture and help it rise and hold its shape.
French roll
Soaked in cream until soft, it adds moisture and a tender, custardy body.

The step that matters

Folding in the beaten egg whites. Fold gently so the whites keep the air they were beaten to hold. Overmixing deflates the foam, leaving dense cakes that rise less in the oven.

“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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