Name: Cheese Straws
Ingredients: 4 tablespoons flour; 4 tablespoons cheese, grated; 2 tablespoons butter; 1 teaspoon salt; 2 tablespoons milk; ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper; ¼ teaspoon nutmeg; 2 egg yolks

Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Cheese Straws

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the dough

Melt the butter in a bowl.
Beat the egg yolks and add them to the melted butter.
Sift the flour into a mixing bowl and add the nutmeg, cayenne pepper, salt, and grated cheese.
Mix in the egg and butter mixture along with the milk.

Shape and bake

Roll out the dough and cut it into strips.
Bake in a cool oven at 300°F (150°C) until golden.

Serve

Serve with any kind of salads.

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.

Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together13,015 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,623 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,962 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Cheese + milktop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,426 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Cheese: Adds savoury flavour and fat, and helps the straws brown as they bake.
Butter: Adds richness and fat, giving the straws a tender, crumbly texture.
Egg yolks: Bind the dough and add richness through their fat and emulsifiers.
Flour: Provides the structure that holds the dough together once baked.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, cheese, butter, milk, pepper, egg):

Nutmegthe original
Parsleyfits about as well
Cinnamonfits about as well
Thymefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, cheese, butter, milk, pepper, egg. 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.