Why it works: Flour and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,673 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Cheese Straws and Salted Almonds
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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.
Make the dough
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
In a bowl, mix grated cheese, flour, and red pepper.
Cut in butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
Roll out the dough and cut into strips.
Bake and season the almonds
Place on a baking sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes until golden.
In a pan, melt 2 tablespoons of butter and add almonds.
Sprinkle with coarse sea salt and toss to coat.
Serve cheese straws and salted almonds warm.
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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Flour + almondtop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,673 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,962 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Butter + almondtop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,245 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Cheese + peppertop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,861 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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
- Grated cheese
- Provides rich savory flavor and helps bind the dough as it melts.
- All-purpose flour
- Forms the structure of the dough, holding the straws together as they bake.
- Butter
- Cut into the flour to give the straws a short, tender, crumbly texture.
- Almonds
- Toast in melted butter and salt to become crisp and savory for serving.
The step that matters
Cutting in the butter. Butter should stay in small, cold pieces rather than fully blending into the flour. As it melts in the oven it creates steam and flaky, tender layers instead of a dense texture.
Swap the almond
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cheese, flour, pepper, butter):
- Almondthe original
- Walnutfits about as well
- Beansfits about as well
- Chestnutfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against cheese, flour, pepper, butter. 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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