Name: Pimento and Cottage Cheese Roast
Ingredients: 2 cups cooked cereal (rice, etc.); 1 cup cottage cheese; 1 cup dry bread crumbs; 3 pimentos (chopped fine); 1½ teaspoons salt; ¼ teaspoon baking soda; ¼ teaspoon pepper; liquid, if necessary

Why it works: Rice and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,379 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Pimento and Cottage Cheese Roast

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
In a bowl, blend the cooked cereal, cottage cheese, bread crumbs, chopped pimentos, salt, baking soda, and pepper.
Add liquid if the mixture is too dry.
Form the mixture into a loaf shape.
Brush the top with melted fat or oil.

Bake and serve

Bake in the preheated oven until golden brown, about 30 minutes.

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.

Rice + peppertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,379 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Rice + breadtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,259 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
Rice + cottage cheesetop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together145 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
Cottage cheese + breadtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together72 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
Bread + peppertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,964 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Cooked cereal: Provides bulk and body so the loaf holds a substantial, sliceable structure.
Cottage cheese: Adds moisture and soft, creamy protein that sets gently when baked.
Dry bread crumbs: Absorb moisture and help bind the mixture into a shapeable loaf.
Pimentos: Add mild sweetness, color, and a gentle aroma to the loaf.
Baking soda: Raises the mixture's pH, which helps promote browning on the surface.

The step that matters

Adding liquid only if needed. Cereal and bread crumbs absorb liquid at different rates, so a mixture that is too dry will crumble when formed and sliced. Add liquid gradually and check the texture before shaping the loaf.

“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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Pimento and Cottage Cheese Roast