Name: Lemon Cheese Cakes, Plain
Ingredients: 2 eggs; 2 ounces sugar; bread crumbs; short crust pastry

Why it works: Egg and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 22,662 recipes. Both carry (e)-2-octenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Lemon Cheese Cakes, Plain

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

2 eggs
2 ounces sugar
bread crumbs
short crust pastry

Directions

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

Cream the yolks of the eggs with the sugar.
Stir in enough bread crumbs to thicken the mixture.
Whisk the egg whites to a stiff froth and gently fold them into the mixture.
Line patty pans with short crust pastry.
Fill the pastry cases three-quarters full with the mixture.
Bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) for 10 to 15 minutes.

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.

Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,662 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together122,807 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar + breadtop 32% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together8,638 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).