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The Fondue

A quick cheese fondue made by whisking eggs, butter, and Gruyère until thick, then seasoning and serving hot.

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

The Fondue

Ingredients

Directions

Make the fondue

  1. Break and beat the eggs in a saucepan.

  2. Add the butter and grated or chopped cheese.

  3. Place the saucepan over heat and stir with a wooden spoon until thick and soft.

  4. Season with salt and a generous amount of pepper.

Serve

  1. Serve hot on a dish, ideally with wine.

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. Cheese + peppertop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,861 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

Eggs
Set and thicken the cheese mixture as they heat, giving the fondue body.
Gruyères cheese
Melts into a smooth, creamy base that gives the fondue its main flavour.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the cheese melt smoothly without becoming grainy.

The step that matters

Stir over gentle heat until thick and soft. Eggs can scramble if the heat is too high or they sit still. Steady stirring over moderate heat lets the eggs thicken gradually while the cheese melts evenly into a smooth mixture.

“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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