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Dessert

Lemon Cheese-cake

A baked lemon cheesecake made with sponge cake, eggs, milk, butter, sugar, lemon rind, and lemon juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter 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 ↓

Lemon Cheese-cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderately hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the sponge cake

  1. Slice the sponge cake.

  2. Pour the milk or cream over the sliced sponge cake.

Make the filling

  1. Beat the butter and sugar together until smooth.

  2. Stir the mixture into the butter and sugar.

  3. Mash the sponge cake very fine.

  4. Add the mashed sponge cake to the mixture.

  5. Grate the yellow rind of the lemon.

  6. Squeeze the juice of the lemon into the mixture.

  7. Stir the mixture well.

Bake

  1. Cover the pie plates with the pie crust.

  2. Fill the pie plates with the mixture.

  3. Bake at 350°F (175°C) 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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,053 recipes

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

  3. Lemon + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

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

  4. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Coagulate as they heat, giving the filling its set structure and body.
Sponge cake
Soaked and mashed, it thickens the filling and adds a soft, tender body.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity and a bright, sharp flavour that balances the sugar.
Milk or cream
Supplies moisture and richness, keeping the filling smooth and creamy.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth, creamy mouthfeel.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and balances the sharpness of the lemon.

The step that matters

Bake until just set. As the filling heats, egg proteins coagulate and set it. Overbaking squeezes out liquid and makes the filling weep, crack or turn grainy.

Swap the lemon

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

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

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