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Dessert

Pastey. Cheese Pastry

A baked cheese pastry made from a stiff cheese and butter dough, cut into strips and rings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Pastey. 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.

Make the dough

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

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

  3. Add the yolk of the egg and mix into a smooth, stiff paste.

  4. Roll out the paste into a strip ⅛ inch thick and 5 inches long.

  5. Cut the strip into equal-sized pieces and some rings.

Bake and serve

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

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

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

Flour
Forms the structure of the paste that holds the straws together.
Butter
Adds fat that makes the straws short and tender as they bake.
Parmesan cheese
Adds savory flavor and helps the straws brown in the oven.
Cheddar cheese
Adds richness and cheesy flavor while contributing to browning.
Egg yolk
Binds the dough into a smooth, stiff paste and adds richness.

The step that matters

Rolling the paste to an even thickness. Straws of uneven thickness bake unevenly, with thin pieces burning before thick ones are cooked through. Rolling to a consistent ⅛ inch gives straws that brown and crisp at the same rate.

“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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