Why it works: Caraway and cumin share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓
Potato Cheese
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the potatoes
Boil the potatoes until soft, keeping the skin intact.
Peel the potatoes and mash them into a smooth paste.
Make the cheese
In a cheese tub, combine the potato paste, milk, rennet, salt, caraway seeds, and cumin seeds.
Knead the mixture well and cover it.
Let it sit for 3-4 days in winter or 2-3 days in summer.
Knead again and place the mixture into wicker molds to drain until dry.
Once dry, place the cheeses in a warm area to harden gradually.
If any burst, fill the crevices with a mixture of curds and cream, then dry again.
Store and ripen
Store the cheeses in barrels with green chickweed for about three weeks before use.
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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Caraway + cumintop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together81 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
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Potato + cumintop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together972 recipes
Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
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Potato + milktop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,611 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
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Potato + carawaytop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together115 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-decenal (green, must).
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Milk + carawaytop 20% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together647 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Potatoes
- Provide the starchy bulk and body that the cheese is built around.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and richness, helping the paste stay soft and workable.
- Rennet
- Causes the milk to coagulate so the mixture can set into a solid cheese.
- Caraway seeds
- Contribute a distinct aromatic flavour to the finished cheese.
- Cumin seeds
- Contribute a warm, earthy aroma to the finished cheese.
The step that matters
Drying before hardening. The mixture must drain until dry before it is warmed to harden. Moisture left inside can cause cracking and bursting as the cheese firms, and it can encourage spoilage during ageing.
Swap the caraway
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, milk, cumin):
- Turmericfits better
- Cinnamonfits better
- Corianderfits better
- Carawaythe original
Fit is the average pairing score against potato, milk, cumin. 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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