Why it works: Cheese and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,861 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. 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).
Shape
Combine the puff pastry, salt, cheese, and cayenne in a bowl.
Roll the mixture out to ¼ inch thick.
Cut into strips ¼ inch wide and 5-6 inches long.
Roll each strip into a spiral shape and place on a baking sheet.
Bake and serve
Bake until golden and 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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Cheese + peppertop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,861 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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 fat and dough puff in the oven, giving the straws a light, flaky texture.
- Parmesan or gruyère cheese
- Melts and browns during baking, adding savory flavor and a crisp, golden surface.
The step that matters
Bake until golden. Puff pastry needs a hot oven to turn its butter into steam, which lifts the layers. Baking too briefly leaves the straws pale and doughy, while overbaking dries and darkens them quickly.
“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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