Name: Cheese Balls
Ingredients: ½ pound double cream cheese; rich cream (as needed); ¼ teaspoon salt; plenty of red pepper

Why it works: Cream cheese and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,087 recipes. Both carry gamma-decalactone, which smells peach, creamy. The science ↓

Cheese Balls

Ingredients

½ pound double cream cheese
rich cream (as needed)
¼ teaspoon salt
plenty of red pepper

Directions

Make the cheese paste

Combine the double cream cheese and enough rich cream to create a smooth, stiff paste.
Add the salt and red pepper, mixing well.

Shape and serve

Form the mixture into small round balls.
Chill the cheese balls in the refrigerator.
Serve chilled with a lettuce salad.

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.

Cream cheese + creamtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,087 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).
Cream + peppertop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together21,449 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Cream cheese + peppertop 27% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,195 recipes

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

Cream and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 21,449 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Double cream cheese: Forms the base of the paste, providing richness and a soft, spreadable body.
Rich cream: Loosens the cheese into a smooth, stiff paste that holds its shape when formed.

“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.