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Cheese Relish

A cheese and butter paste mixed with paprika, onion, celery, and green peppers, chilled and served with toasted crackers.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Cheese Relish

Ingredients

Directions

Make the relish

  1. In a bowl, combine the cheese and butter to form a smooth paste.

  2. Add the paprika, onion, celery, and green peppers, mixing well.

Chill and serve

  1. Chill the mixture before serving.

  2. Serve with hot, toasted crackers.

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. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Cheese + roquefort cheesetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together21 recipes

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

  3. Celery + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

  5. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Cheese
Forms the creamy base and provides the main savory flavor of the relish.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, helping the cheese blend into a smooth, spreadable paste.
Roquefort cheese
Contributes a sharp, tangy blue-cheese aroma that stands out against the mild base.
Green peppers
Add crisp texture and fresh, slightly bitter vegetable flavor.
Onion
Adds sharpness and aromatic bite that cuts through the richness of the cheese.

The step that matters

Chill the mixture before serving. Chilling firms the fat in the butter and cheese so the relish sets into a spreadable consistency and the flavors blend. Serving it warm can leave it soft and greasy.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Mustardfits better
  2. Tomatofits about as well
  3. Capsicumfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

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