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Fondue

A baked cheese fondue made with milk, flour, Parmesan, mustard, pepper, salt, and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,430 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Fondue

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the custard base

  1. In a saucepan, make a smooth paste with milk and flour.

  2. Add grated Parmesan cheese, salt, mustard powder, and pepper; mix thoroughly.

  3. Beat the eggs in a separate bowl and incorporate them into the paste.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a baking dish or patty pans.

  2. Bake at 400°F (200°C) until golden brown and serve immediately.

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. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

  2. Flour + mustardtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,066 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Parmesan cheese + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,322 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  4. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Milk + parmesan cheesetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,608 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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

Milk
Forms the liquid base that the flour thickens into a smooth paste.
All-purpose flour
Thickens the milk and gives the fondue a stable, sliceable body.
Parmesan cheese
Adds savory, salty flavor and fat that enriches the texture.
Eggs
Set on heating to give the baked fondue its firm, custard-like structure.

The step that matters

Incorporating the eggs into the paste. Eggs set when heated, so the paste should be warm but not hot when they are added, and mixed in smoothly to avoid scrambled bits and uneven setting.

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, flour, parmesan cheese, pepper, egg):

  1. Asparagusfits better
  2. Spinachfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, flour, parmesan cheese, pepper, egg. 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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