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Cheese Sticks

Thin strips of buttered bread dough coated with Parmesan cheese, baked until lightly browned.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Cheese Sticks

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the dough

  1. Roll out the bread dough on a floured surface until about ⅓ inch thick.

  2. Spread the dough with bits of butter, dredge with flour, fold, and roll again.

  3. Repeat until you've incorporated all the butter.

  4. Cut the rolled dough into strips half an inch wide.

Bake and finish

  1. Place the strips on a baking sheet and bake at 300°F (150°C) until lightly browned.

  2. Remove from the oven, let cool, then brush with egg white and coat with grated Parmesan.

  3. Return to the oven for 1-2 minutes to set.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Butter + parmesan cheesetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,163 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Pepper + parmesan cheesetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,322 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  4. Bread + parmesan cheesetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together577 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. 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

Bread dough
Forms the base structure of the cheese sticks as it is rolled and baked.
Butter
Layered into the dough through folding, adding richness and tenderness as it bakes.
Parmesan cheese
Melts and browns on the surface, adding savory flavor and a crisp finish.

The step that matters

Return to the oven for 1-2 minutes to set. Baking only briefly after coating helps the cheese and egg white set and adhere without burning. Too long and the cheese can scorch, since its milk proteins and sugars brown quickly at high heat.

“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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