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English Monkey

A cheese and breadcrumb mixture served on crackers.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

English Monkey

Ingredients

Directions

Make the crumb mixture

  1. Soak the bread crumbs in the milk for 15 minutes.

  2. Melt the butter in a chafing dish or skillet.

  3. Add the soaked bread crumbs and milk to the melted butter and mix well.

  4. Stir in the grated cheese and let it melt.

  5. Add the salt and beaten egg, stirring until thickened.

  6. Remove from heat and stir in the Worcestershire sauce.

Serve

  1. Serve on toasted crackers.

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. 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

Bread crumbs
Soak up the milk and give the mixture body and a soft, spreadable texture.
Grated cheese
Melts into the mixture to add rich flavour and a creamy, stretchy texture.
Egg
Sets with gentle heat, thickening the mixture as it is stirred.
Milk
Softens the bread crumbs and adds moisture to the mixture.
Butter
Melts to provide fat and richness, helping the crumbs cook evenly.

The step that matters

Adding the beaten egg. Egg proteins set when heated, so stir the mixture steadily over gentle heat once the egg goes in. Too much heat or no stirring can scramble the egg and leave lumps instead of a smooth, thickened mixture.

Swap the walnut

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

  1. Pecansfits about as well
  2. Peasfits about as well
  3. Walnutthe original
  4. Lima beansfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, milk, butter, cheese, egg, sauce. 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.

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