Why it works: Cheese and butter 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 ↓
Pouncled Cheese
Ingredients
Directions
Make the cheese paste
Pound and rub the cheese and butter in a mortar until smooth.
Serve and store
Spread on bread or between two pieces of bread as sandwiches.
Optionally, add mustard and cayenne.
If not used immediately, press into a jar and cover with clarified butter.
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.
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Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- Cheese
- Provides the main flavor and, once pounded, the body of the paste.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness, making the paste smooth and spreadable.
The step that matters
Pounding until smooth. Working the cheese and butter together until smooth breaks up the cheese's firm structure, so the paste spreads evenly instead of crumbling. Thorough blending gives an even texture throughout.
“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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