Name: Cottage Cheese
Ingredients: milk; hot water; coarse sea salt; butter; sour cream

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 ↓

Cottage Cheese

Ingredients

Directions

Heat the milk until it thickens and sets firmly.
Cut the curd into 1-inch squares with a knife to release the whey.
Slowly pour in hot water until the whey is slightly above blood heat.
Gently stir with a spoon for even warming for 15 minutes.
Drain the whey using a colander and press out any remaining whey with a spoon.
Add salt and butter to taste, then pack the cheese dry for storage.
When ready to use, thin the cheese with sour cream.

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.

Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together29,399 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).