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 ↓
Cheese, Potted
Ingredients
Directions
Make the paste
In a marble mortar, combine the cheese, butter, sugar, mustard, and chosen powder.
Pound the ingredients together until you achieve a smooth paste.
Optionally, add a little sherry for extra flavor.
Pot and serve
Transfer the mixture to a jar and cover it with clarified butter.
Seal the jar tightly.
Serve spread on bread and butter.
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.
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Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,962 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Cheese + mustardtop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,805 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Butter + anchovytop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,697 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Cheese + sherrytop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together143 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl pentanoate (yeast, fruit).
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Butter + sherrytop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,505 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
- Provides the main flavor and body of the paste.
- Fresh butter
- Adds richness and makes the paste smooth and spreadable.
- Loaf sugar
- Adds a touch of sweetness that balances the sharp cheese.
- Made mustard
- Adds sharpness and a pungent note that cuts the richness.
The step that matters
Pounding to a smooth paste. Cheese and butter must be worked until fully blended; lumps left in the mixture will not spread evenly and can leave pockets of unmixed cheese.
Swap the mustard
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cheese, butter, sugar, anchovy, sherry):
- Capsicumfits about as well
- Mustardthe original
- Potatofits about as well
- Tomatofits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against cheese, butter, sugar, anchovy, sherry. 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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