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Dessert

Deviled Cheese

A creamy cheese spread flavored with mustard, cayenne, and butter, served on crackers.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Deviled Cheese

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 spread

  1. Mix together the grated cheese, salt, dry mustard, cream, and cayenne pepper.

  2. Blend this mixture with the butter.

Spread and bake

  1. Spread the mixture over the large square crackers.

  2. Place in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) until they begin to brown.

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 + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  2. Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

  3. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Cheese + mustardtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,805 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Cheese + creamtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,655 recipes

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

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 savory flavor and fat, and browns and sets when heated.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, helping the spread blend smoothly and feel soft and creamy.
Cream
Adds moisture so the cheese mixture blends into a smooth, spreadable texture.
Dry mustard
Adds a sharp, pungent flavor that balances the richness of the cheese and butter.

The step that matters

Watch the crackers in the oven. Cheese contains proteins and milk sugars that brown quickly at high heat, so the crackers can go from golden to burnt within minutes. Checking as they begin to brown prevents scorching.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Capsicumfits about as well
  3. Onionfits about as well
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cheese, cream, pepper, butter. 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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