Why it works: Butter and bread 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 and Egg Toast
Ingredients
Directions
Make the cheese sauce
Boil the cheese crumbs in the rich milk until melted.
Beat the eggs well.
Season the milk with salt, pepper, and butter.
Stir in the beaten eggs rapidly for a few minutes.
Remove from heat.
Serve
Spread the mixture over hot slices of toasted bread.
Cut the toast into halves and quarters.
Serve on a hot platter.
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.
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Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Cheese + breadtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,130 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,962 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Cheese + milktop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- Cheese crumbs
- Melt into the milk to form the savoury base of the topping.
- Rich milk
- Provides the liquid that melts the cheese and carries the flavour.
- Eggs
- Set when stirred into the hot milk, thickening the mixture into a spreadable topping.
The step that matters
Stir in the beaten eggs rapidly for a few minutes. Eggs set when heated, and if they are added without constant stirring they can curdle into lumps instead of forming a smooth, thick 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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