Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Cheese Fondu
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.
Make the base
Melt the butter in a saucepan.
Whisk the boiled milk into the melted butter.
Dissolve the flour in the cold milk. Add the dissolved flour to the boiled milk mixture.
Let the mixture cool.
Prepare the mixture
Beat the egg yolks with salt, pepper, and grated cheese.
Whip the egg whites until stiff. Fold the whipped egg whites into the mixture.
Bake and serve
Pour the mixture into a deep tin lined with parchment paper. Allow the mixture to rise.
Bake at 400°F (200°C) for 20 minutes. Serve immediately.
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.
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,962 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Milk + cheesetop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,426 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter and flour 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
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat, giving the base a smooth, tender texture.
- Flour
- Thickens the milk base so it holds structure once cooled and combined.
- Egg yolks
- Enrich the base and help bind it, adding richness and body.
- Egg whites
- Whipped to stiff peaks, they trap air that lifts the mixture as it bakes.
- Grated cheese
- Provides savory flavor and fat, and melts into the base for a rich texture.
The step that matters
Fold the whipped egg whites into the mixture. Folding gently preserves the air trapped in the stiff whites. Stirring or deflating them removes that air, so the mixture rises less when baked.
“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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