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Dessert

Fondu

A cheese fondue made with parmesan, Gloucester cheese, egg yolks, cream or melted butter, pepper, salt, and folded egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Parmesan cheese and cheese match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,041 recipes. Both carry ethyl 2-methylbutyrate, which smells fruity, apple. The science ↓

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.

Prepare the mixture

  1. Mix equal quantities of grated parmesan and Gloucester cheese.

  2. Add double the weight of beaten egg yolks and cream or melted butter.

  3. Beat all ingredients well together, then add pepper and salt.

  4. Gently fold in the beaten egg whites.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a deep tin dish or paper cases, filling only half full.

  2. Bake at 400°F (200°C) until risen and golden.

  3. Serve immediately while hot.

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 + cheesetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,041 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Cheese + creamtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,655 recipes

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

  4. Parmesan cheese + creamtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,566 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Add richness and body, helping the fondue set into a custard-like texture.
Egg whites
Folded in whipped to trap air, so the fondue rises and becomes light in the oven.
Parmesan cheese
Adds savoury, salty depth and helps the top brown as it bakes.
Gloucester cheese
Adds mild, creamy flavour and melts smoothly into the savoury base.
Cream or melted butter
Adds fat and moisture, keeping the baked mixture tender rather than dry.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Whites must be beaten and folded in gently. Overmixing knocks out the trapped air, so the fondue rises less and turns dense.

“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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