Why it works: Cheese and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,130 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
To Toast Cheese
Ingredients
Directions
Toast the bread slices until golden brown and remove the crusts.
Place the cheese on the toasted bread, ensuring the cheese is smaller than the bread.
Use a cheese toaster and place it before the fire.
When the cheese begins to melt, stir it on the bread to prevent a skin from forming.
Remove from heat as soon as all the cheese is melted and serve immediately.
Alternatively, toast the cheese in small patty pans without bread and serve with toasted bread on the side.
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 + breadtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,130 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
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