Why it works: Cheese and butter 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
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.
Make the dough
In a bowl, mix the ground cheese, butter, flour, baking powder, and salt.
Add cold water gradually until a stiff dough forms.
Knead the dough thoroughly.
Shape and bake
Roll out and cut into strips.
Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) until golden.
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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Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,962 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Cheese + flourtop 29% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together4,860 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter and flour 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
- Ground cheese
- Adds flavor and fat, and helps bind the dough together.
- Butter
- Adds fat that keeps the dough tender and short.
- Flour
- Provides the structure that holds the dough and strips together.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas that lifts the dough and gives a lighter texture.
The step that matters
Add cold water gradually. Too much water at once makes the dough sticky and tough, because flour proteins form more gluten when wet. Adding water slowly lets you stop once a stiff dough forms, and cold water keeps the butter firm for a tender bake.
“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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