Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Cheese Neuveau
Ingredients
Directions
Assemble
Butter the slices of bread and place them in a frying pan.
Sprinkle a little coarse sea salt over the bread.
Add a thick layer of grated cheese on top.
Repeat with another layer of bread and salted cheese until the pan is full.
Pour 1 cup of rich milk over the layers.
Steam and serve
Cover the pan and steam on the side of the stove for 20 to 30 minutes.
Turn onto a hot platter and serve immediately.
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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Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Bread + cheesetop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,130 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,962 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Cheese + milktop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,426 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
- Bread
- Forms the layers that soak up the milk and cheese as they steam.
- Grated cheese
- Melts into the milk and binds the layers together as a rich, savory filling.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness and helps the bread brown lightly in the pan.
- Rich milk
- Moistens the bread and, as it steams, creates a soft, custard-like texture.
“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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