Why it works: Parmesan cheese and cheese match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,041 recipes. Both carry ethyl 2-methylbutyrate, which smells fruity, apple. The science ↓
Potted Cheese
Ingredients
Directions
Scrape and pound the Parmesan and Cheshire cheese with the butter.
Add cayenne pepper, pounded mace, sifted sugar, white wine, and salt.
Mix until well combined.
Press the mixture into a potting jar to shape.
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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Parmesan cheese + cheesetop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,041 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
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Parmesan cheese + white winetop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together697 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).
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Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,962 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Butter + white winetop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,083 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
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Parmesan cheese + buttertop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,163 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the mace
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (parmesan cheese, cheese, butter, pepper, sugar, white wine):
- Thymefits better
- Basilfits better
- Garlicfits better
- Macethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against parmesan cheese, cheese, butter, pepper, sugar, white wine. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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