Why it works: Gruyere cheese and pepper work together. They rank in the top 23% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 322 recipes. Both carry ethyl 2-methylbutyrate, which smells fruity, apple. The science ↓
Cheese Straws
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
In a bowl, combine the puff pastry, salt, cheese, and cayenne or Tabasco.
Roll the mixture out to about ¼ inch thick.
Shape
Cut into strips ¼ inch wide and 5-6 inches long.
Roll each strip into a spiral shape.
Bake and serve
Place on a wire rack and bake until golden.
Serve hot on a napkin.
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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Gruyere cheese + peppertop 23% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together322 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Puff pastry
- Its layers of dough and fat puff apart in the oven, giving the straws a light, flaky texture.
- Parmesan or gruyere cheese
- Adds savory, salty flavor and browns and crisps as it bakes.
The step that matters
Bake until golden on a wire rack. Cheese browns quickly and can scorch before the pastry sets. A wire rack lets hot air reach all sides, so the straws crisp evenly. Watch color rather than only time.
“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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