Why it works: Cheese and butter match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and 7,955 recipes mention both. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
The recipe
Ingredients
Contains: milk (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)
Directions
Prepare
Grate the cheese finely.
Make the dressing
Gradually add the vinegar.
Mix in the salt, pepper, and melted butter.
Beat until well combined.
Serve
Serve garnished with lettuce leaves.
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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Cheese + buttertop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together7,955 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Cheese + vinegartop 5% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together922 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-methylbutanol (malty, whiskey).
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Vinegar + peppertop 6% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together27,805 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Cheese + peppertop 9% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together7,861 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Pepper + buttertop 11% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together85,512 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Cheese
- Supplies the main savory flavour and the solid body of the salad.
- Vinegar
- Adds sharpness that balances the richness of the cheese and butter.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and a smoother, more cohesive texture when melted in.
The step that matters
Gradually add the vinegar.. Adding the acid slowly lets it disperse evenly through the fat and cheese. Dumping it in at once can cause uneven patches or a separated, curdled texture.
“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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