Name: Cheese Piquant
Ingredients: ½ cup minced parsley; ¼ cup melted butter; ¾ teaspoon cayenne pepper; ⅛ teaspoon salt; 1 cup grated cheese

Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Cheese Piquant

Ingredients

Directions

In a bowl, combine minced parsley, melted butter, cayenne pepper, salt, and grated cheese.
Form the mixture into tiny balls.
Roll the balls in additional minced parsley.
Serve with meat pies, oyster pies, chicken and dumplings, or cold roast meat, but not with fried or broiled meats.

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.

Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,962 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Parsley + buttertop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together28,563 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Pepper + cheesetop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,861 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together85,593 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Grated cheese: Provides the main savoury flavour and binds the mixture with the butter.
Melted butter: Adds fat that binds the mixture together and carries flavour.
Minced parsley: Adds fresh, herbal aroma and a green finish on the outside.
Cayenne pepper: Adds a sharp, warming heat that gives the dish its piquant character.