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Pairing

Provolone cheese + Cream cheese

A proven pairing. Cooks put them together in 15 recipes, and they share 109 flavor molecules: the top 1% of all ingredient pairs. They are chemically alike and usually fill the same role, so they behave more like substitutes than partners.

Smell alikestrong
Cooked together15 recipes
Ranktop 1% of pairs
Try them in the pairing tool Provolone cheese Cream cheese
13provolone cheese only 109shared 8cream cheese only Provolone cheese · 122 Cream cheese · 117
Circle size = number of flavor molecules on record. Overlap = molecules they share.

Do provolone cheese and cream cheese go together?

Yes. 15 recipes in our collection combine them, and they share 109 flavor molecules. That places them in the top 1% of every ingredient pair we score.

Why they work

Almost everything cream cheese carries, provolone cheese has too: 109 of cream cheese's 117 flavor molecules also occur in provolone cheese. Among the shared key aromas are ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple) and methyl 2-methylbutyrate (apple, fatty).

What each one brings

provolone cheese

Much the same character. It carries 13 molecules cream cheese doesn't have.

cream cheese

Much the same character. It carries 8 molecules provolone cheese doesn't have.

Add a third ingredient

  • Mozzarella cheese: the best fit for both, top 1% of pairs with provolone cheese, top 1% with cream cheese.
  • Romano cheese: top 1% of pairs with provolone cheese, top 1% with cream cheese.
  • Swiss cheese: top 1% of pairs with provolone cheese, top 1% with cream cheese.
  • Goat cheese: top 1% of pairs with provolone cheese, top 1% with cream cheese.

Ranked by the average of its two pairing scores. Only foods used in at least 100 recipes are suggested.

Recipes with provolone cheese and cream cheese

Almost always mains: 2 of the 2 recipes with a course label are mains.

Caramelized Onion-Avocado PizzaTuscany Beef Focaccia

See recipes with both →

Can you swap one for the other?

Fairly well, for flavor. Each carries most of the other's flavor molecules (89% of provolone cheese's and 93% of cream cheese's are shared). This compares flavor only; texture, moisture and the job each does in a dish matter too.

All 109 shared molecules

See every shared molecule grouped by chemical class, with key aromas marked, plus the 13 only in provolone cheese and the 8 only in cream cheese.

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Provolone cheese and cream cheese questions

Do provolone cheese and cream cheese go together?

A proven pairing. Cooks put them together in 15 recipes, and they share 109 flavor molecules: the top 1% of all ingredient pairs. They are chemically alike and usually fill the same role, so they behave more like substitutes than partners.

Why do provolone cheese and cream cheese taste good together?

Almost everything cream cheese carries, provolone cheese has too: 109 of cream cheese's 117 flavor molecules also occur in provolone cheese. Among the shared key aromas are ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple) and methyl 2-methylbutyrate (apple, fatty).

What goes with provolone cheese and cream cheese?

Mozzarella cheese is the best third ingredient: top 1% of pairs with provolone cheese and top 1% with cream cheese. Romano cheese and swiss cheese also fit both.

What can you make with provolone cheese and cream cheese?

Almost always mains: 2 of the 2 recipes with a course label are mains. Common dishes include Caramelized Onion-Avocado Pizza, Tuscany Beef Focaccia.

Can I use cream cheese instead of provolone cheese?

Fairly well, for flavor. Each carries most of the other's flavor molecules (89% of provolone cheese's and 93% of cream cheese's are shared). This compares flavor only; texture, moisture and the job each does in a dish matter too.

Compare other ingredients

1
2

Two ingredients gives the full side-by-side breakdown; add a third to see a similarity matrix across all of them (up to 6).

Ranks compare this pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. Molecule counts are what the studies and databases we aggregate have reported for each ingredient: a measure of coverage, not a full census. How we score pairs

Cite this analysis
Plain text
Compound Kitchen (2026). Compound similarity analysis: Provolone Cheese vs Cream Cheese. https://compkitchen.com/compare/provolone-cheese-vs-cream-cheese. Accessed 2026-11-07.
BibTeX
@misc{compkitchen_compare_compound_similarity_analysis_provolone_cheese_vs_cream_cheese_2026,
  title  = {Compound similarity analysis: Provolone Cheese vs Cream Cheese},
  author = {{Compound Kitchen}},
  year   = {2026},
  url    = {https://compkitchen.com/compare/provolone-cheese-vs-cream-cheese},
  note   = {Accessed: 2026-11-07}
}

Methodology DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.19719459 · CC BY 4.0 · Citations are a request, not a requirement.