Why it works: Cheese and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,962 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Cheese, Potted
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Slice the cheese into a mortar.
Pound the cheese with butter or oil until well combined.
Gradually add salt, pepper, mustard, curry paste, and ketchup while pounding.
Pot and store
Press the mixture into small pots.
Store in a cool place.
Increase seasoning for long-term storage.
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 + buttertop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,962 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together15,430 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Cheese + mustardtop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,805 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Mustard + ketchuptop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together331 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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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
- Cheese
- Forms the bulk of the paste and supplies the main flavour and richness.
- Butter or oil
- Adds fat so the pounded cheese becomes smooth and spreadable.
Swap the mustard
The recipe marks mustard as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cheese, butter, pepper, ketchup):
- Capsicumfits better
- Mustardthe original
- Tomatofits about as well
- Onionfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against cheese, butter, pepper, ketchup. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“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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