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English Monkey

A savory snack of bread crumbs, butter, milk, cheese, eggs, and spices, cooked quickly and served over crackers.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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

Prepare the base

  1. Soak the bread crumbs in milk until soft.

  2. Melt the butter in a chafing dish, add the diced cheese, and stir until melted.

Cook and serve

  1. Add the soaked crumbs, salt, pepper, cayenne, and beaten eggs.

  2. Cook for 3 minutes, stirring constantly.

  3. Pour over 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. Butter + milktop 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 milk and give the mixture body and a soft, thick texture.
Eggs
Set as they cook, binding the mixture together and thickening it.
Cheese
Melts into the butter to give a creamy texture and rich, savory flavor.
Butter
Melts first to coat the cheese and crumbs, adding richness and smoothness.
Milk
Softens the bread crumbs and adds moisture to the mixture.

The step that matters

Stir constantly while cooking the eggs. Egg proteins set when heated, so the mixture can curdle or turn grainy if it overheats or sits still. Constant stirring spreads the heat evenly and keeps the texture smooth and creamy.

“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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