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Dessert

To Pot Cheese

A mixture of grated cheese, cold butter, mace, and mustard, set in small pots and covered with clarified butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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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 ↓

To Pot Cheese

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Combine the grated cheese, cold butter, sifted mace, and mustard in a mortar, then mix all the ingredients well until smooth.

Pot and store

  1. Transfer the mixture into small pots.

  2. Cover the cheese with clarified butter.

  3. Store the pots in a cool, dry place.

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. Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

  2. Cheese + mustardtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,805 recipes

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

  3. Butter + macetop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together11,405 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Mace + mustardtop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,534 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

Butter and mace barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 11,405 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

What each ingredient does

Parmesan or cheshire cheese
Provides the main body and savory, salty flavor of the spread.
Cold butter
Binds the grated cheese into a smooth, spreadable paste and adds richness.
Clarified butter
Covers the surface to seal the pots and help protect the cheese from air.
Mustard
Adds a sharp, tangy note that balances the richness of the cheese and butter.

The step that matters

Mixing until smooth. Cold butter must be worked evenly through the grated cheese. If it stays in lumps, the paste will be uneven and crumbly rather than smooth and spreadable.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Macethe original

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