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Dessert

Cheese Straws

Cheese Straws are baked strips of dough made with flour, butter, cheese, and cayenne pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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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 Straws

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the dough

  1. Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt.

  2. Cut the butter into the flour until well blended.

  3. Add the grated cheese and mix thoroughly.

  4. Stir in the ice water and a dash of cayenne pepper.

Shape and bake

  1. Roll the dough on a floured surface as thin as possible.

  2. Cut the dough into strips about 5 inches long and the width of a pencil.

  3. Bake on slightly greased baking sheets in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C).

  4. Watch carefully to prevent the straws from becoming too 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.

  1. Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  4. Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

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

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

Flour
Forms the structure of the dough once mixed with liquid and fat.
Butter
Cut into the flour to make the dough tender and flaky as it bakes.
Grated cheese
Adds rich flavour and contributes to browning in the oven.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking so the straws rise and lighten.
Ice water
Binds the dough while keeping it cold, which limits gluten toughness.

The step that matters

Watch the straws in the oven. Thin straws brown quickly because they have little mass, so the sugars and proteins in the cheese can scorch before the centre dries. Checking early prevents bitter, burnt straws.

“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.

More cheese straws recipes

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