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Dessert

Cheese Wafers

A spread of cream cheese, mustard, olive oil, lemon juice or vinegar, and paprika served on thin wafers.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Olive and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,922 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Cheese Wafers

Ingredients

Directions

Make the cheese mixture

  1. Mash the cream cheese in a bowl.

  2. Slowly add the olive oil, mixing well.

  3. Beat in the lemon juice and paprika until smooth.

Serve

  1. Serve the mixture on thin wafers.

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.

  1. Olive + lemontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,922 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Mustard + olivetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Mustard + lemontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,816 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Cream cheese + olivetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,003 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (apple, fatty).

  5. Cream cheese + lemontop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together881 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

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

What each ingredient does

Cream cheese
Provides the main body and rich, creamy base from its fat and milk solids.
Olive oil
Adds fat that loosens the cheese and gives a smooth, spreadable texture.
Lemon juice or vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavor and cuts the richness of the cheese.
Dry mustard
Adds a sharp, pungent flavor that balances the richness of the cheese.

The step that matters

Slowly add the olive oil. Adding oil gradually lets it blend into the cheese as a smooth emulsion. Pouring it in too fast can leave the mixture greasy and separated rather than creamy.

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream cheese, olive, lemon):

  1. Tomatofits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream cheese, olive, lemon. 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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