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Dessert

Cheese Dainty

A chilled cheese dessert made with gelatin, whipped cream, grated cheese, salt, paprika, and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and cheese are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,655 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Cheese Dainty

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Dissolve the gelatine in hot water and let it cool.

Make the mixture

  1. Stir in the whipped cream and grated cheese gently with a silver fork.

  2. Add salt and paprika, mixing well.

Serve

  1. Sprinkle parsley on top and chill until very cold.

  2. Serve in small puffs with salad dressing.

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. Cream + cheesetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,655 recipes

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

  2. Cheese + parsleytop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,507 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  3. Cream + parsleytop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,392 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

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

What each ingredient does

Cox's gelatine
Sets the mixture so it holds its shape when chilled.
Whipped cream
Adds airiness and richness to the mixture.
Grated cheese
Provides the main savoury flavour and body.

The step that matters

Stir in the whipped cream and grated cheese gently with a silver fork.. Whipped cream holds air bubbles that give the mixture its lightness. Vigorous stirring deflates them, leaving a dense result. Folding gently keeps the mixture light and even.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Celeryfits better
  3. Garlicfits better
  4. Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, cheese. 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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