Name: Orange Cheese-cake
Ingredients: ¼ pound butter; ¼ pound sugar; 3 eggs; ⅓ cup milk or cream; 2 ounces sponge cake; grated rind of 1 orange; ½ nutmeg, grated; 1 tablespoon brandy or 2 tablespoons rose water

Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Orange Cheese-cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Soak the sponge cake in the milk or cream to moisten it.
In a bowl, cream together the butter and sugar.
Whisk the eggs and mash the soaked sponge cake very fine.

Bake

Mix the butter‑sugar mixture with the eggs, sponge cake, liquor, and spice.
Line your pie plates with pastry, fill with the mixture, and bake.

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.

Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Orange + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,746 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Milk + nutmegtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together14,685 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Orange + brandytop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,706 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Nutmeg + brandytop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,311 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs: Bind the mixture and help it set as it bakes.
Butter: Adds richness and a tender texture to the filling.
Sponge cake: Provides body, soaked in milk so it moistens the filling.
Sugar: Sweetens the filling and helps cream with the butter.
Milk or cream: Moistens the sponge cake and adds softness to the filling.

Swap the orange

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

Vanillafits better
Figfits better
Raisinfits better
Orangethe original

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