Why it works: Parmesan cheese and cheddar cheese match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 592 recipes. Both carry ethyl 2-methylbutyrate, which smells fruity, apple. The science ↓
Cheese Straws
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the dough
On a board, mix the flour with salt and Cayenne pepper.
Grate the Parmesan and Cheddar cheese.
Rub the cheese and butter into the flour.
Mix all ingredients with the yolk of the egg into a smooth, stiff paste.
Flour the board and rolling pin, then roll out the paste to ⅛ inch thick and 5 inches wide.
Cut the paste into strips ⅛ inch wide and 5 inches long using a floured knife.
Use round cutters to cut little rings from the paste.
Bake and serve
Grease a baking sheet with butter.
Place the cheese straws and rings on the baking sheet and bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 10 minutes.
Check occasionally to ensure they do not burn; they should be pale brown when done.
Serve by threading the cheese straws through the rings like a bundle of sticks.
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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Parmesan cheese + cheddar cheesetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together592 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
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Butter + cheddar cheesetop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,436 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Butter + parmesan cheesetop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,163 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Parmesan cheese + peppertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,322 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Butter
- Rubbed into the flour to add richness and a tender, crumbly texture.
- Flour
- Forms the structure of the paste that holds the straws together.
- Parmesan cheese
- Adds savory flavor and helps the straws brown as they bake.
- Egg yolk
- Binds the dough into a smooth, stiff paste.
The step that matters
Checking the bake. The straws are thin and brown quickly, so they can scorch in minutes. Pale brown is the target; past that, the cheese turns bitter and the straws become brittle.
“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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