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Thanksgiving Cheese Ball

"Similar to other cheese ball recipes, yet different! Our family has this every year as a prelude to Thanksgiving dinner, along with a relish tray, to use up those last few minutes while the turkey's browning. Double it and freeze one for New Year's! Serve with an array of crackers."

By allrecipes · From Open Recipes · 8 ingredients
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Thanksgiving Cheese Ball

Why it works: Cream cheese and blue cheese share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 70 recipes. Both carry ethyl 2-methylbutyrate, which smells fruity, apple. The science ↓

Thanksgiving Cheese Ball

8 servings
Prep15 min

Ingredients

Directions

Step-by-step directions aren't available for this recipe. See the full recipe at the source →

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

569Calories
20 gProtein
48 gFat
19 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 8 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Pecans1 oz (28g / ~19 halves)196
Cheddar Cheese1 oz (28g)113
Blue Cheese1 oz (28g)100
Cream Cheese1 oz (28g)99
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Soy Sauce1 tbsp (15ml)9
Garlic1 clove (3g)4
Olive1 large (4g)4

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By allrecipes. Recipe from Open Recipes.

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. Cream cheese + blue cheesetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together70 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  2. Cream cheese + cheddar cheesetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together467 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  3. Cheddar cheese + blue cheesetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together51 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  4. Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  5. Garlic + olivetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,665 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

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

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream cheese, cheddar cheese, blue cheese, onion, garlic, sauce, olive):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Cuminfits better
  3. Oreganofits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream cheese, cheddar cheese, blue cheese, onion, garlic, sauce, olive. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.