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Cheese Sticks

Cheese sticks are baked sticks of dough mixed with cheese.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cheese are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,962 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Cheese Sticks

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dough

  1. In a bowl, mix flour and baking powder.

  2. Add butter and egg yolks, then mix until crumbly.

  3. Gradually add water to form a dough.

Shape and bake

  1. Roll out the dough and incorporate the grated cheese.

  2. Shape into sticks and bake until golden.

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 + cheesetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Egg + cheesetop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,253 recipes

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

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Butter
Fat that shortens the dough, giving it a tender, crumbly texture.
Egg yolks
Add richness and fat, helping bind the dough and aid browning.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the oven, lifting the dough so the sticks rise and lighten.
Grated american cheese
Adds flavor and fat, and melts to contribute savory richness.
Flour
Forms the structure that holds the dough together and sets when baked.

The step that matters

Gradually add water to form a dough. Adding water slowly lets flour absorb it evenly. Too much at once makes the dough sticky and tough, since gluten develops with excess moisture and handling.

“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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