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Dessert

Cheese Pastry

Cheese pastry strips and rings baked until pale brown, served as sticks.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Parmesan cheese and cheddar cheese match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 592 recipes. Both carry ethyl 2-methylbutyrate, which smells fruity, apple. The science ↓

Cheese Pastry

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the dough

  1. On a clean surface, combine the flour, salt, and cayenne.

  2. Rub in the grated cheeses and butter until well mixed.

  3. Add the egg yolk and water, mixing into a smooth, stiff paste.

  4. Roll out the paste to ⅛ inch thick and cut into strips and rings.

Bake and serve

  1. Grease a baking sheet and place the strips and rings on it.

  2. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 10 minutes until pale brown.

  3. Serve by standing the straws through the rings like a bundle of sticks.

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. Parmesan cheese + cheddar cheesetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together592 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  2. Butter + cheddar cheesetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,436 recipes

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

  3. Butter + parmesan cheesetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,163 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Parmesan cheese + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,322 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

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
Melted into the flour, it adds richness and a tender, crumbly texture.
Flour
Forms the structure of the paste that holds the straws together when baked.
Parmesan cheese
Adds savory flavor and helps the straws brown as they bake.
Cheddar cheese
Adds extra savory flavor and fat, contributing to a richer crumb.
Egg yolk
Binds the dough and adds fat and richness for a smooth, stiff paste.

The step that matters

Rolling the paste to an even thickness. Uneven thickness makes some straws overbake and burn while others stay soft. Rolling to a consistent ⅛ inch lets them bake evenly and turn uniformly pale brown.

“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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