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Potted Cheese

A cheese mixture of grated Parmesan or Cheshire, butter, mace, and mustard, set in small pots and covered with clarified butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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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 ↓

Potted Cheese

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

Make the potted cheese

  1. Mix the grated cheese, cold butter, mace, and mustard until well combined in a marble mortar.

  2. Transfer the mixture into small pots.

Cover and store

  1. Cover the mixture with clarified butter.

  2. Store the pots in a cool, dry place.

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. Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

  2. Cheese + mustardtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,805 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Butter + macetop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together11,405 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  4. Butter + mustardtop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,003 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Mace + mustardtop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,534 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

Butter and mace barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 11,405 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

Parmesan or cheshire cheese
Provides the main savoury, salty flavour and firm body of the spread.
Cold butter
Binds the grated cheese into a spreadable paste and adds richness.
Mace
Adds a warm, aromatic spice note to the cheese.
Mustard
Adds sharpness that balances the richness of the cheese and butter.
Clarified butter
Forms a sealed layer over the top that helps protect the cheese from air.

The step that matters

Cover the mixture with clarified butter. Clarified butter forms a sealed top layer that keeps air away from the cheese, slowing spoilage and oxidation. The layer should fully cover the surface so no gaps let air reach the mixture.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cheese, butter, mustard):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cheese, butter, mustard. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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