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Cheese and Dates

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream cheese and cheese match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 473 recipes. Both carry ethyl 2-methylbutyrate, which smells fruity, apple. The science ↓

Cheese and Dates

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Wash, drain, and stone the dates.

  2. Stuff the dates with cream cheese seasoned with coarse sea salt and paprika.

  3. Chill the stuffed dates.

  4. Serve on a bed of lettuce with mayonnaise or special cheese 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 cheese + cheesetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together473 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  2. Dates + lettucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together26 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Lettuce + cheesetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together614 recipes

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

  4. Cream cheese + lettucetop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together213 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  5. Dates + cream cheesetop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

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

Swap the dates

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

  1. Avocadofits better
  2. Pineapplefits better
  3. Pearfits better
  4. Datesthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream cheese, lettuce, cheese. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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