Why it works: Parmesan cheese and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,322 recipes. Both carry ethyl 2-methylbutyrate, which smells fruity, apple. The science ↓
Cheese Fingers
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
In a bowl, combine puff pastry, salt, grated cheese, and cayenne or Tabasco.
Shape and bake
Roll out the mixture to about ½ inch thick.
Cut into oblong shapes, approximately 3 inches long.
Bake until golden and serve hot on a napkin.
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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Parmesan cheese + peppertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,322 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Puff pastry
- Provides flaky layers that puff and crisp in the oven as it bakes.
- Parmesan cheese
- Adds savory flavor and browns during baking, giving the fingers a golden color.
The step that matters
Baking until golden. Puff pastry needs a hot oven to rise and crisp properly. Baking until golden ensures the layers are set and cooked through, while pulling them too early leaves the pastry doughy.
“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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