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Dessert

Lemon Cheesecakes

A sweet lemon custard made by simmering sugar, butter, eggs, lemon juice, and rind, then cooled in jars.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,227 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Lemon Cheesecakes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the filling

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

  2. Simmer the mixture, stirring constantly, until it thickens to a consistency like stiff honey.

Store and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into jars and let it cool.

  2. Seal the jars tightly; it will keep for three months or more.

  3. To serve, spoon the mixture into patty pans and chill.

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. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

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

  2. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

  5. Egg + lemontop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set and thicken the filling as they cook, giving it a rich, custard-like body.
Butter
Adds fat for a smooth, rich texture and helps the curd feel silky on the palate.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps balance the sharpness of the lemon juice.
Lemon juice
Provides acidity and bright flavour, and helps thicken the mixture as it cooks with the eggs.
Lemon rind
Contributes aromatic lemon oils for fragrance and deeper citrus flavour.

The step that matters

Simmering until stiff honey consistency. Eggs thicken as their proteins set with gentle heat, but overheating can curdle them. Stirring constantly and stopping at the right thickness keeps the filling smooth.

Swap the lemon

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

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

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