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Baking

Cheese Straws, No. 1

Cheese straws are thin pastry strips with grated cheese and cayenne pepper, baked until crisp.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Cheese and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,861 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Cheese Straws, No. 1

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the dough

  1. Roll puff pastry thin.

  2. Sprinkle with grated cheese and a little cayenne pepper.

  3. Fold and roll out, repeating the process.

  4. Let it stand in a cool place for a while.

Shape and bake

  1. Roll very thin and cut strips about ¼ inch wide and 3 inches long.

  2. Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) for 10 to 15 minutes.

  3. Serve hot or cold as a course at dinner or with salad.

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. Cheese + peppertop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,861 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Puff pastry
Its layers of fat and dough puff with steam, giving the straws a flaky, crisp texture.
Grated cheese
Adds savoury flavour and fat, and browns as it bakes for a richer colour.
Cayenne pepper
Adds a gentle, sharp heat that contrasts with the rich cheese and pastry.

The step that matters

Bake in a slow oven. Baking at a low temperature lets the pastry dry and crisp through without the cheese scorching or burning on the outside. Watch closely near the 10 to 15 minute mark.

“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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