Skip to main content
Main

Cheese, Potted

A cheese mixture of grated cheese, butter, wine, and spices, pressed into small pots and covered with clarified butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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, Potted

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cheese

  1. Remove the rind from the cheese and cut it into small pieces.

Make the potted cheese

  1. Pound the cheese in a mortar until smooth, gradually adding the butter.

  2. Season to taste, then stir in the wine.

  3. Press the mixture into small pots and cover with clarified butter.

Store

  1. Store in a cool, dry place.

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. Mace + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,257 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Cheddar cheese + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,016 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Butter + macetop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together11,405 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

Mace and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,257 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

Cheese
Provides the main flavour and, once pounded, the body of the spread.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, spreadable texture to the pounded cheese.
Wine (in the method)
Adds acidity and a light fruity note that balances the rich cheese and butter.

The step that matters

Pound the cheese until smooth, adding the butter gradually. Adding the butter slowly lets it blend evenly into the cheese. Adding it all at once can leave greasy or lumpy patches and an uneven texture.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cheddar cheese, butter, pepper):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Sagefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cheddar cheese, butter, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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.

You might also like

Macaroni and CheeseMacaroni and Cheese102 recipesCheese MakingCheese Making50 recipesCheese FrittersCheese Fritters34 recipesCheese OmeletteCheese Omelette31 recipes