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Lemon Cheese Cakes

A pastry shell filled with a lemon butter and egg mixture.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Lemon Cheese Cakes

Why it works: Lemon and biscuit match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 697 recipes. Both carry nonanal, which smells fat, citrus. The science ↓

Lemon Cheese Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the filling

  1. In a saucepan, combine sugar, lemon juice, lemon rind, eggs, and butter.

  2. Place over low heat, stirring until the mixture is dissolved.

  3. Add the rolled biscuit and mix well.

  4. Allow the mixture to cool and then use it as a filling.

Assemble

  1. Make small shells from puff pastry and fill them with the lemon filling.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Lemon + biscuittop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together697 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

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

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

  3. Butter + biscuittop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,009 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  4. Sugar + biscuittop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set the filling and add richness and structure as it thickens over gentle heat.
Butter
Adds fat for a smooth, rich texture and helps the filling feel silky.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps it dissolve into a smooth mixture.
Lemon juice
Provides acidity that gives the filling its bright, tart flavour.
Rolled biscuit
Adds body and helps thicken the filling as it is mixed in.

The step that matters

Heat gently while stirring. Eggs can curdle or scramble if heated too quickly or left unstirred. Low heat and constant stirring let the mixture thicken smoothly.

Swap the lemon

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

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

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