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Deviled Cheese

Deviled cheese is a creamy cheese mixture stuffed into sweet peppers and chilled before serving.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Deviled Cheese

Ingredients

Directions

Make the filling

  1. In a bowl, combine Neufchâtel cheese, butter, coarse sea salt, white pepper, cream, baking soda, and onion extract.

  2. Rub the mixture together until very smooth.

  3. If desired, add a little chopped pepper to the mixture.

Stuff and chill

  1. Pack the mixture solidly into the sweet peppers.

  2. Put the stuffed peppers on ice until firm.

Serve

  1. Slice and serve with salads or use for sandwiches.

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 + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  2. Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  4. Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Cheese + creamtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,655 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

Neufchâtel cheese
Provides the creamy base that gives the filling its body and spreadable texture.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth, silky mouthfeel to the filling.
Cream
Adds moisture so the cheese blends into a smooth, spreadable mixture.
Baking soda
Raises the mixture's pH slightly, which can affect flavor and browning in cooked dishes.
Sweet peppers
Act as the edible shell that holds the filling and adds mild, sweet flavor.

The step that matters

Rub the mixture together until very smooth. Cream cheese and butter stay lumpy unless fully worked, and lumps in the filling make it grainy and uneven when packed and chilled. Thorough blending gives an even, firm texture that holds its shape when sliced.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cheese, butter, cream, onion, pepper):

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cheese, butter, cream, onion, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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