Why it works: Cheese and butter 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 Straws
Ingredients
Directions
Make the dough
Sift together one-fourth cup corn starch, three-fourths cup flour, one-fourth teaspoonful baking powder, one-half teaspoon salt, three-fourths cup grated cheese, five tablespoonful soft butter, a dash of paprika, and one unbeaten egg.
Mix all together, and add enough milk or water to make a very stiff dough.
Knead well by folding it over and over so as to make layers, as in pastry baking.
Shape and bake
Roll out dough into a three-fourth inch sheet, square up edges with a knife, and cut into strips four or five inches long, one-half inch wide.
Lay strips on a greased pan and bake in a moderate oven until golden brown.
Serve
Serve with salads.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
What these numbers assume: 5 portions
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Flour | 1 cup (125g) all-purpose | 455 |
| Cheese | 1 oz (28g) cheddar | 113 |
| Butter | 1 tbsp (14g) | 102 |
| Egg | 1 large egg (50g) | 78 |
| Salt | 1 tsp (6g) | 0 |
One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.
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. See the original page.
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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Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,962 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
Corn + teatop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together89 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
-
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Corn + flourtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,165 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Corn + buttertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,345 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
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
- Flour
- Provides the main structure that holds the dough together as it bakes.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness, tenderizing the dough and helping it brown.
- Egg
- Binds the dough and adds richness to hold the strips together.
- Grated cheese
- Contributes savory flavor and fat, and helps the straws brown.
- Corn starch
- Lightens the texture, giving the straws a more tender, crisp bite than flour alone.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas during baking to lighten the dough slightly.
The step that matters
Knead by folding into layers. Folding the stiff dough over repeatedly builds layers, as in pastry, which gives the straws a flaky, crisp texture rather than a dense one.
“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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