Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓
Cheese Cakes
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Mix the curd with sugar, eggs, vanilla extract, lemon juice, and melted butter until smooth.
Pour the mixture into a greased baking dish.
Bake and serve
Bake for 30-40 minutes or until set and lightly golden on top.
Let cool before serving.
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.
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Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,187 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together35,032 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Vanilla + buttertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together20,050 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Vanilla + lemontop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,961 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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
- Curd
- Forms the main body of the cheesecake as its proteins set when heated.
- Eggs
- Help bind and set the filling, giving it a firm yet tender structure.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and balances the tang of the curd and lemon.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and a smoother, more tender texture.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and cuts the richness of the curd.
The step that matters
Bake until set. Egg proteins firm as they heat. Underbaking leaves the filling runny, while overbaking tightens it too much, making it dry and prone to cracking.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, sugar, egg, vanilla, butter):
- Figfits better
- Peachfits better
- Coconutfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, sugar, egg, vanilla, 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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