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German Cheese Patties

German cheese patties are puff pastry squares filled with a melted cheese and sauce mixture.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

German Cheese Patties

Oven, in the book's wordsA good oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a good oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the patties

  1. Cut puff pastry into small square patties.

  2. Bake the patties in a 400°F (200°C) oven for about 15 minutes.

  3. Remove the tops of the patties and crush the centers of the patties.

Make the cheese filling

  1. In a saucepan, combine thick white sauce, cheese, cream, mustard, cayenne, and lemon juice.

  2. Stir the mixture over heat until the cheese melts.

Fill and serve

  1. Fill the crushed patties with the cheese mixture.

  2. Replace the tops of the patties.

  3. Serve the patties hot.

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. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

  3. Sauce + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,787 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

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

  5. Mustard + lemontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,816 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Puff pastry
Bakes into flaky, airy patty shells that hold the filling.
Thick white sauce
Adds body and creaminess so the filling holds together when warm.
Cheese
Melts into the sauce to give the filling its rich flavor and smooth texture.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, keeping the filling smooth and spreadable.
Mustard
Adds sharp, tangy flavor that balances the richness of the cheese.

The step that matters

Stir the cheese mixture over heat until it melts. Cheese can turn grainy or stringy if overheated, and too little heat leaves lumps. Gentle, steady stirring melts the cheese evenly into the sauce for a smooth filling.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Avocadofits better
  2. Limefits better
  3. Mangofits about as well
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sauce, cheese, cream, mustard, pepper. 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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