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Petits Brioche Au Parmesan

Petits brioche filled with a béchamel‑Parmesan mixture, baked until hot.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Parmesan cheese and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,322 recipes. Both carry ethyl 2-methylbutyrate, which smells fruity, apple. The science ↓

Petits Brioche Au Parmesan

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Cut a slit in the side of each brioche large enough to fit a teaspoon.

  3. Place the brioche on a baking sheet.

Make the cheese filling

  1. In a small saucepan, heat the béchamel sauce until it boils.

  2. Quickly stir in the egg yolks until the sauce thickens, but do not let it boil.

  3. Gradually add the grated Parmesan and cayenne pepper to the sauce.

Fill and bake

  1. Using a teaspoon, fill each brioche with the cheese mixture.

  2. Bake the filled brioche in the oven until hot.

  3. Serve on silver plates and keep warm until ready to serve.

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. Parmesan cheese + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,322 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  2. Egg + parmesan cheesetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,368 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  3. Brioche + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together159 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  4. Sauce + parmesan cheesetop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,294 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanoic acid (soapy, waxy).

  5. Brioche + saucetop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together49 recipes

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Thicken the béchamel into a rich, smooth filling that holds together.
Parmesan cheese
Adds savory, salty flavor and browning as it heats in the filling.
Béchamel sauce
Forms a creamy base that carries the cheese and keeps the filling moist.
Brioche loaves
Act as the edible vessel, soft and rich, holding the filling.

The step that matters

Stirring in the egg yolks. If the sauce boils after the yolks go in, the egg proteins scramble and the sauce turns grainy instead of smoothly thickened. Keep the heat low and stir quickly off the boil.

“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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