Why it works: Milk and cream cheese are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,393 recipes. Both carry ethyl 2-methylbutyrate, which smells fruity, apple. The science ↓
Cottage Cheese
Ingredients
Directions
Heat clabber milk on the stove for 3 to 5 minutes.
Pour the heated milk into a strong bag and hang it up to drain for 6 to 24 hours.
Once drained, transfer the cheese to a dish and beat it well.
Add a pinch of coarse sea salt and press through a sieve.
Stir in sweet cream to achieve the desired consistency.
For added flavor, mix in cream cheese, finely chopped olives, or caraway seeds if desired.
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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Milk + cream cheesetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,393 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
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Olive + carawaytop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together226 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Cream cheese + olivetop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,003 recipes
Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (apple, fatty).
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Cream + cream cheesetop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,087 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).
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Milk + olivetop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,828 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the caraway
The recipe marks caraway as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, cream, cream cheese, olive):
- Nutmegfits better
- Garlicfits better
- Cinnamonfits better
- Carawaythe original
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, cream, cream cheese, olive. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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