Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Cardoons with Parmesan Cheese
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare and cook the cardoons as per the previous recipe.
Drain the cooked cardoons on a napkin and trim them.
In a buttered baking dish, arrange a layer of cardoons.
Add a little reduced Espagnole sauce and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.
Repeat to make three layers, sprinkling the top with a mix of Parmesan cheese and fresh bread crumbs.
Wipe off the edges of the dish, add a little butter on top, and bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven until golden.
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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Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Butter + parmesan cheesetop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,163 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together15,338 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Parmesan cheese + breadtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together577 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Cardoon + breadtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
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