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Dessert

Cheese-straws

Cheese Straws are baked strips of dough made with cheese, butter, flour, egg yolk, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Cheddar cheese and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,436 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Cheese-straws

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the dough

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. In a bowl, rub the butter into the flour until well combined.

  3. Add the grated cheese, cayenne, and salt, mixing well.

  4. Incorporate the egg yolk into the mixture.

  5. Roll out the dough and cut it into strips.

Bake and serve

  1. Place the strips on a baking sheet and brush with egg.

  2. Bake in the preheated oven until golden.

  3. Serve hot, arranged criss-cross on a dish with mustard on the side.

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. Cheddar cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,436 recipes

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

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Cheddar cheese + flourtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,592 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Butter
Rubbed into the flour to make a short, tender dough that holds its shape.
All-purpose flour
Provides the structure that holds the dough together when rolled and cut.
Parmesan or cheddar cheese
Adds savory flavor and fat, and helps the strips brown as they bake.
Egg yolk
Binds the dough and adds richness and color to the finished straws.

The step that matters

Baking until golden. Cheese browns quickly because its milk proteins and sugars caramelize at high heat. Pulling the straws when golden keeps them crisp and prevents the cheese from turning bitter or burnt.

“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.

More cheese straws recipes

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