Name: Cottage Cheese Spread
Ingredients: 1 crust of bread; ½ cup cottage cheese; 2 tablespoons finely chopped chives; 2 tablespoons finely chopped onion tops; 2 tablespoons finely chopped parsley; 2 tablespoons finely chopped green tansy; 2 tablespoons finely chopped watercress; 2 tablespoons finely chopped wild mustard leaves; 2 tablespoons cream

Why it works: Chive and watercress share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 97 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Cottage Cheese Spread

Ingredients

1 crust of bread
½ cup cottage cheese
2 tablespoons finely chopped chives
2 tablespoons finely chopped onion tops
2 tablespoons finely chopped parsley
2 tablespoons finely chopped green tansy
2 tablespoons finely chopped watercress
2 tablespoons finely chopped wild mustard leaves
2 tablespoons cream

Directions

Spread cottage cheese on the crust of bread.
Mix in chives, onion tops, parsley, green tansy, watercress, and wild mustard leaves.
Add cream and mix well.
Serve immediately.

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.

Chive + watercresstop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together97 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Watercress + mustardtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together293 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Chive + mustardtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together587 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Parsley + watercresstop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together469 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Chive + parsleytop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,150 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Cottage cheese: Forms the creamy, spreadable base of the dish.
Cream: Adds moisture and richness, loosening the cheese into a smoother spread.
Chives: Contributes a mild onion-like aroma and fresh flavour.
Parsley: Adds fresh, herbal aroma and a green note that lightens the cheese.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, cottage cheese, chive, onion, watercress, mustard, cream):

Capersfits better
Garlicfits better
Tarragonfits about as well
Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, cottage cheese, chive, onion, watercress, mustard, cream. 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.