Name: Cheese, Toasted
Ingredients: 6 oz Cheddar cheese; 1 oz butter; 2 teaspoons dry mustard; a pinch of cayenne; buttered toast

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, Toasted

Ingredients

Directions

Knead the butter, mustard, and cayenne together on a plate.
Prepare one slice of buttered toast, trimming the edges.
Cover the toast with half the cheese sliced thinly and spread on half the butter.
Add the remaining slices of cheese on top.

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.

Cheddar cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,436 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Cheddar cheese + mustardtop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together708 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Butter + mustardtop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,003 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).