Skip to main content
Main

English Fondue

A quick cheese fondue made with eggs, butter, and seasonings, cooked over a water bath.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Cheese and butter 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 ↓

English Fondue

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Break the eggs into a bowl.

  2. Add the grated cheese and butter to the bowl.

  3. Place the mixture in a saucepan set over boiling water.

Make the fondue

  1. Stir continuously until the mixture is smooth.

  2. Season with salt and white pepper.

  3. Cook on the back of the stove for about 7 minutes.

  4. Ensure it boils but does not set.

  5. Pour the fondue onto a hot platter immediately after it melts.

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 + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

  2. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Egg + white peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,312 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

  4. Egg + cheesetop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,253 recipes

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

  5. Butter + white peppertop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set and thicken the mixture into a creamy, custard-like texture when gently heated.
Grated cheese
Adds rich flavour and melts into the eggs to give the fondue its body.
Butter
Adds fat for a smooth, glossy texture and helps the cheese melt evenly.

The step that matters

Ensure it boils but does not set. Eggs thicken with gentle heat, but overheating causes proteins to tighten and curdle, leaving a grainy texture. Stir constantly over water that is simmering, not rapidly boiling, to keep the fondue smooth.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, cheese, butter):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, cheese, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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.

You might also like

Macaroni and CheeseMacaroni and Cheese102 recipesCheese MakingCheese Making50 recipesCheese FrittersCheese Fritters34 recipesCheese OmeletteCheese Omelette31 recipes