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Cheese-toast

A simple toasted bread with butter and grated cheese.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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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-toast

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Butter the bread slices on one side.

  2. Cover the buttered side with grated cheese.

Toast

  1. Place the slices on a heavy griddle, cheese side up.

  2. Toast until the bottom is golden brown.

  3. As the bottom crisps, the cheese will melt.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Bread + cheesetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,130 recipes

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

  3. Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 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 crisp, golden base that holds the melted cheese.
Butter
Adds fat that helps the bread brown evenly and gives a rich flavor.
Grated cheese
Melts on top of the toast, providing the creamy, savory topping.

The step that matters

Toasting the bottom until golden brown. Browning relies on heat and time, so the bottom can burn before the cheese melts if the heat is too high. Watching the color keeps the crust golden while the cheese softens.

“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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