Name: Cream-crust, or Feuilletage
Ingredients: 6 oz. cream-crust (or feuilletage); 3 oz. grated Parmesan cheese (or 2½ oz. dry white English cheese); 1 yolk of egg; a little milk

Why it works: Parmesan cheese and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,608 recipes. Both carry ethyl 2-methylbutyrate, which smells fruity, apple. The science ↓

Cream-crust, or Feuilletage

Ingredients

6 oz. cream-crust (or feuilletage)
3 oz. grated Parmesan cheese (or 2½ oz. dry white English cheese)
1 yolk of egg
a little milk

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).
Mix the grated cheese into the cream-crust until well combined.
Roll out the mixture lightly twice.
Cut the dough into small rounds using a pastry cutter.
Mix the yolk of egg with a little milk and wash the tops of the rounds.

Bake and serve

Bake for about 15 minutes until golden.
Serve very hot.

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.

Parmesan cheese + milktop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,608 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
Cream + parmesan cheesetop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,566 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).
Cream + milktop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together29,399 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together88,785 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Parmesan cheese + eggtop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,368 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

What each ingredient does

Cream-crust: Provides the rich, flaky pastry base that holds the cheese and bakes up light.
Parmesan cheese: Adds savory flavor and helps the tops brown as the cheese melts and toasts.
Yolk of egg: Brushed on the tops, it promotes an even golden color and glossy finish.

“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.