Why it works: Parmesan cheese and cheese match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,041 recipes. Both carry ethyl 2-methylbutyrate, which smells fruity, apple. The science ↓
Cream-Crust with Cheese
Ingredients
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 cheeses into the cream crust until well combined.
Roll out the mixture lightly twice.
Cut the dough into shapes using a small pastry cutter.
Wash the cut shapes with a mixture of egg yolk and a little milk.
Bake and serve
Bake for about 15 minutes until golden.
Serve very hot.
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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Parmesan cheese + cheesetop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,041 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
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Cheese + milktop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,426 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
Parmesan cheese + milktop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,608 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
-
Cream + cheesetop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,655 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
Cream + parmesan cheesetop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,566 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Cream crust or feuilletage
- Forms flaky, layered pastry that puffs and gives the puffs their structure.
- Parmesan cheese
- Adds savoury, salty flavour and browns slightly during baking.
- Dry white english cheese
- Adds rich cheese flavour and body to the dough.
- Egg yolk
- Gives the washed surface a glossy, golden browning finish.
The step that matters
Wash the cut shapes with egg yolk and milk. The wash should coat the surface evenly without pooling at the cut edges, which can stop the layers rising cleanly. Browning comes from proteins and sugars in the yolk reacting in the oven's heat.
“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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