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Cheese Straws No. 2
2 ounces of Cheddar cheese 2 ounces of Parmesan cheese 2 ounces of flour 2 ounces of butter Pepper Grate the cheese, add the flour, beat the butter to a cream, and add to the cheese and flour, with the seasoning. Mix well together, and roll about a quarter of an inch thick. Cut into fingers, and bake ten minutes.
A four-ingredient shortbread-style dough in equal weights, with no oven temperature given. Weigh rather than measure by volume — the balance of cheese, flour and butter is the whole recipe.
- Oven temperatureThe original assumes the cook knows her range. Bake at 400F; ten minutes at that heat gives straws that are set and lightly coloured at the edges without the cheese fat separating out.
- The weights in cups2 oz flour is a scant 1/2 cup, 2 oz butter is 4 tablespoons, 2 oz Cheddar is about 1/2 cup lightly packed grated, and 2 oz Parmesan closer to 2/3 cup because it grates finer. Scales are more reliable here.
- The hinge: no liquidNothing binds this but butter and cheese fat, so it will look like crumbs before it looks like dough. Work it with the heel of the hand until it coheres; if it truly will not come together, a teaspoon of cold water will do it — not more butter.
- Chill before rollingRest the dough in the refrigerator 20 to 30 minutes, then roll a quarter inch thick between parchment so it does not tear.
- Cheese to useUse a firm, dry farmhouse Cheddar rather than a young block cheese, which releases water and slackens the dough. Parmesan here means genuine hard grating cheese; the pre-grated tubs contain anti-caking agents and bake gritty.
- The pepperCayenne was common in English savouries of this kind, and a pinch of it does more for cheese straws than black pepper. A small pinch of salt is worth adding if your butter is unsalted.
- Cutting and yieldFingers about half an inch wide and four inches long are the classic shape. This quantity gives roughly 20 to 24 straws, enough for four to six people with drinks.
- CoolingThey are fragile and floppy straight from the oven and crisp as they cool. Leave them on the tray five minutes before lifting. Stored airtight they keep two or three days and revive in a 300F oven.
Cheese straws belong to the English savoury — the small salty course served after the sweet at a Victorian or Edwardian dinner, when the cloth was drawn and the port came round. The type is essentially a cheese shortbread, a formula that appears with small variations across late nineteenth-century English household manuals, sometimes as "cheese biscuits" or "cheese fingers" cut into rings and batons. The blend of Cheddar for flavour and Parmesan for dryness is a practical choice rather than a fussy one — the harder cheese keeps the dough from going greasy in the oven.