Name: Toasted Cheese
Ingredients: slices of bread (brown or white); slices of cheese (sage if liked); coarse sea salt

Why it works: Bread and cheese are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,130 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Toasted Cheese

Ingredients

slices of bread (brown or white)
slices of cheese (sage if liked)
coarse sea salt

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Cut the bread into slices as needed.
Slice the cheese thinly and cover each slice of bread with cheese.
Heat in the oven until the cheese is melted.
Sprinkle a little coarse sea salt on top and serve hot.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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.

Bread + cheesetop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,130 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Bread + sagetop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,778 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Cheese + sagetop 26% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together181 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).