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Cheese, Toasted

A toasted cheese sandwich made with butter, mustard, cayenne, and cheese.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Cheddar cheese and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,436 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Cheese, Toasted

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderately hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Knead the butter, mustard, and cayenne together on a plate.

  2. Prepare one slice of buttered toast.

  3. Trim the edges of the toast.

Assemble

  1. Cover the toast with half the cheese sliced thinly.

  2. Spread half the butter over the cheese.

  3. Add the remaining cheese slices.

  4. Cover with the rest of the butter.

Cook and serve

  1. Cook in a Dutch oven over the fire until the cheese is melted.

  2. Serve as hot as possible.

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. Cheddar cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,436 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Cheddar cheese + mustardtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together708 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Butter + mustardtop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,003 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Cheshire or cheddar cheese
Melts into a rich, stretchy layer that gives the toast its body and savoury flavour.
Butter
Adds fat that carries flavour and keeps the cheese moist and spreadable as it melts.
Dry mustard
Adds a sharp, pungent note that cuts through the richness of the cheese.
Cayenne
Adds a light background heat that enhances the savoury flavour of the cheese.

The step that matters

Cook in a Dutch oven over the fire until the cheese is melted. Heat that is too high can scorch the bread before the cheese softens, while too low a heat leaves the cheese stiff. Watching the cheese closely keeps it smooth and melted without burning the toast.

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cheddar cheese, butter):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Onionfits better
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cheddar cheese, butter. 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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