Name: Cheese Crackers
Ingredients: Saratoga flakes or soda crackers; butter; 1 heaping teaspoon grated cheese; cayenne pepper

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 Crackers

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Saratoga flakes or soda crackers
butter
1 heaping teaspoon grated cheese
cayenne pepper

Directions

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

Prepare

Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Place a quantity of buttered Saratoga flakes or soda crackers in a baking pan.

Top and bake

Top each cracker with a heaping teaspoon of grated cheese.
Dust a little cayenne pepper over the cheese.
Bake for about 5 minutes until light brown.

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).
Cheese + peppertop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,861 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together85,593 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Cheese: Melts into a savoury topping that browns and adds richness and flavour.
Butter: Coats the crackers, adding fat that helps them brown and gives a rich flavour.
Saratoga flakes or soda crackers: Form the crisp base that holds the cheese topping.

“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.