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Cheese Fondu Au Gratin

A baked cheese fondue made with bread crumbs, milk, butter, eggs, cheese, cayenne, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Jacqueline Harrison Smith (ed.) · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Cheese Fondu Au Gratin

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Soak a cupful of dry bread crumbs for 15 minutes in 2 cupfuls of hot milk.

  2. Dissolve a generous pinch of soda in the milk while heating.

  3. Stir into this paste 3 well beaten eggs, a tablespoonful of melted butter, a pinch of cayenne and a saltspoonful of salt.

  4. Lastly, beat in rapidly a cupful of grated cheese.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour into a greased pudding dish, strew dry cracker crumbs on top, stick bits of butter in them, dust delicately with cayenne pepper or paprika, and bake in quick oven, covered, for 15 minutes.

  2. Then uncover and brown lightly.

  3. Send to table at once, as it falls very soon.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

903Calories
35 gProtein
36 gFat
109 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 7 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Cheese1 oz (28g) cheddar113
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Cayenne1 tsp (1.8g)6
Salt1 tsp (6g)0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Jacqueline Harrison Smith (ed.). Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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. See the original page.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Bread + cheesetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,130 recipes

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

  4. Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

  5. Milk + cheesetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,426 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set the custard and give the fondue its structure as they cook.
Grated cheese
Adds rich flavour and fat, and sets firmly into the custard as it bakes.
Bread crumbs
Soak up the hot milk to thicken the base and give body to the custard.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the eggs and crumbs set within.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, and helps the top brown lightly.

The step that matters

Send to table at once. The eggs set into a delicate structure that loses air and collapses as it cools, so it falls soon after leaving the oven.

“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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