Name: Cheese Straws
Ingredients: ½ pound dried flour; ¼ pound butter; ¼ pound grated Parmesan or Gruyère cheese; 1 teaspoon mustard flour; ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper; ¼ teaspoon salt; 2 egg whites; ¼ pint cold water

Why it works: Butter and cheese 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 ↓

Cheese Straws

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the dough

Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Rub the butter into the flour until well combined, then mix in the cheese, mustard flour, cayenne, and salt.
Beat the egg whites with the cold water and stir in enough to form a firm paste.
Knead the paste well, then roll it out to ⅛ inch thick.

Shape and bake

Cut the dough into straw‑like strips, about 5 inches long.
Bake for about 5 minutes until pale brown.
Serve hot or cold, and store in a 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.

Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,962 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together15,430 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Cheese + mustardtop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,805 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + mustardtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,066 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Dried flour: Forms the main structure of the dough once bound with liquid.
Butter: Adds fat that makes the straws tender and crisp rather than tough.
Parmesan or gruyère cheese: Adds savory flavor and contributes to browning in the oven.
Egg whites: Bind the dough together and help it hold its shape when baked.

The step that matters

Knead the paste well, then roll it out to ⅛ inch thick. Kneading develops the gluten in the flour so the dough holds together, and even rolling to a thin, consistent thickness lets the straws bake through and crisp evenly instead of staying soft in places.

Swap the mustard

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

Capsicumfits about as well
Chivefits about as well
Asparagusfits about as well
Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, cheese, pepper, egg. 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.