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Dessert

Cheese Fondue

A cheese fondue made with soft American cheese, eggs, milk or water, salt, and red pepper, served over toasted bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Cheese and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,130 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Cheese Fondue

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Grate or finely chop the cheese.

  2. Beat the eggs in a bowl.

Make the fondue

  1. Combine the cheese, milk or water, salt, and red pepper in a saucepan.

  2. Heat gently over the fire, stirring constantly.

  3. Once the cheese begins to melt, beat rapidly.

Serve

  1. Pour the mixture over slices of toasted bread in a heated dish.

  2. Serve immediately.

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. Cheese + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,130 recipes

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

  2. Cheese + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,426 recipes

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

  3. Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  4. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  5. Pepper + breadtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,964 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Soft american cheese
Melts into the smooth, creamy body of the fondue.
Eggs
Add richness and help thicken the mixture as it heats.
Milk or water
Adds moisture so the cheese melts evenly rather than sticking.

The step that matters

Heat gently while stirring constantly. Cheese proteins tighten and separate when overheated, which can make the fondue grainy, oily, or stringy. Gentle heat and constant stirring let the cheese melt into an even, smooth emulsion.

“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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