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Cheese Crackers

Cheese crackers are baked dough squares sprinkled with cheese and cayenne pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Cheese Crackers

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the dough

  1. Sift together the flour, cornmeal, salt, and baking powder.

  2. Rub in the cold butter until well combined.

  3. Add the milk and mix into a smooth, firm dough.

Shape the crackers

  1. Flour a board and turn out the dough.

  2. Roll the dough to a thickness of ¼ inch.

  3. Cut out with a large round cutter.

Top and bake

  1. Glaze the tops as you would for pies.

  2. Sprinkle cheese and cayenne pepper on top.

  3. Bake for 10 minutes in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C).

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

  3. Milk + cheesetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,426 recipes

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

  4. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter 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

All-purpose flour
Forms the main structure of the dough as its proteins and starch set on baking.
Cornmeal
Adds a slightly gritty, crisp texture to the crackers.
Butter
Rubbed into the flour, it adds fat that tenderises and flavours the crackers.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking, helping the crackers rise and lighten.
Milk
Hydrates the flour to bind the dough and adds richness and browning.
Cheese
Melts and browns on top, adding savoury flavour and colour.

The step that matters

Rolling to an even ¼ inch. Uneven thickness makes thin spots burn and thick spots stay doughy, so the crackers bake unevenly. Keeping the dough a consistent thickness lets every cracker bake at the same rate.

“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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