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Cheese Crackers

Cheese crackers are baked crackers topped with cheese and cayenne pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cheese are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,962 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Cheese Crackers

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Butter a baking pan and place a quantity of Saratoga Flakes in it.

Top and bake

  1. Top each flake with 1 heaping teaspoon of grated cheese.

  2. Sprinkle a pinch of cayenne pepper over the cheese.

  3. Bake for 5 minutes until slightly brown.

Serve

  1. Serve with salads.

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. Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

  2. Cheese + peppertop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,861 recipes

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

  3. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Saratoga flakes
Form the base of each cracker and provide the crisp, sturdy structure.
Butter
Greases the pan so the crackers release cleanly and helps them brown.
Grated cheese
Melts over each flake, adding savory flavour and a golden, browned top.

The step that matters

Bake for 5 minutes until slightly brown. Cheese browns and sets quickly at high heat, so a few minutes too long can scorch it and make the crackers bitter. Watch for light golden colour rather than relying on the timer alone.

“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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