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Cheese Ramekins

Cheese balls made with grated cheese, salt, cayenne pepper, flour, egg whites, coated in breadcrumbs and fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 106,462 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Cheese Ramekins

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mixture

  1. In a bowl, mix the grated cheese with salt and cayenne pepper.

  2. Fold in the beaten egg whites gently.

Shape and fry

  1. Shape the mixture into balls, using about 1 tablespoon for each.

  2. Roll the balls in breadcrumbs.

  3. Fry the balls in hot oil until golden brown.

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. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  3. Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Cheese + eggtop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,253 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Cheese + flourtop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,860 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Grated cheese
Provides the main flavor and the rich, melting body of the balls.
Egg whites
Bind the mixture and add lightness so the balls hold together while frying.
Flour
Absorbs moisture in the mixture, helping the balls keep their shape.
Breadcrumbs
Form the outer coat that browns and turns crisp in the hot oil.

The step that matters

Frying in hot oil until golden brown. Oil that is hot enough sets the breadcrumb coating quickly, so the melting cheese stays inside. If the oil is too cool, the coating absorbs grease and the cheese can leak out.

“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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