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Cheese, Toasted

A toasted cheese dish flavored with mustard, pepper, and optional port or beer and butter, served with toast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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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, Toasted

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Slice the cheese.

  2. Place it in a cheese toaster on a hot plate.

Make the cheese topping

  1. When melted, stir in mustard and pepper.

  2. Add port or beer and butter if the cheese is dry.

Serve

  1. Serve immediately with toast.

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. Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

  4. Mustard + beertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together314 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Cheese + beertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together174 recipes

    Shared aroma: 5-ethyl-3-hydroxy-4-methyl-2(5h)-furanone (spice).

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

What each ingredient does

Good, rich cheese
Melts into a creamy base that gives the toast its main flavour and body.
Made mustard
Adds sharpness that cuts through the richness of the melted cheese.
Port or beer
Thins the melted cheese and adds moisture when the cheese is dry.
Butter
Adds fat and smoothness, helping the cheese stay glossy and spreadable.
Toast
Provides a crisp base that holds the warm melted cheese.

The step that matters

Add port or beer and butter if the cheese is dry. Cheese that has dried out or overheated can turn grainy or oily as its proteins and fats separate. Adding a little liquid and fat helps it re-emulsify into a smooth, spreadable mixture, so watch the texture rather than adding liquid by default.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Mustardthe original
  3. Potatofits about as well
  4. Tomatofits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against cheese, pepper, beer, butter. 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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