Name: Curd Cheese Cakes
Ingredients: 2 cups curd; 2 oz. butter; 2 eggs; 1 oz. sugar; 1 oz. almonds, chopped; 3 oz. currants; a little nutmeg; 1 tablespoon brandy

Why it works: Almond and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,115 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Curd Cheese Cakes

Oven, in the book's wordsA good oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare

Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Line patty pans with rough puff pastry.
Drain the curd and beat the butter to a cream.

Make and bake

Mix the curd, butter, eggs, sugar, almonds, currants, nutmeg, and brandy together.
Spoon a little of the mixture into each lined patty pan.
Bake for 20 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.

Almond + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,115 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Currant + brandytop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,057 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Butter + almondtop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,245 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
Nutmeg + brandytop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,311 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
Butter + brandytop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,127 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Curd: Provides the moist, creamy body that forms the filling.
Eggs: Bind the filling and set on baking to give it structure.
Butter: Adds richness and fat, softening the filling for a tender texture.
Currants: Add chewy sweetness and fruit flavour throughout the filling.
Almonds: Add nutty flavour and a slight crunch to the filling.

Swap the currant

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

Vanillafits better
Raisinfits better
Figfits better
Currantthe original

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