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Cheese Fondue

A melted cheese dip served with bread cubes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,686 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Cheese Fondue

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Rub the inside of a fondue pot with the garlic clove.

  2. In a bowl, mix the grated cheese with cornstarch.

Make the fondue

  1. Heat the white wine in the fondue pot until hot but not boiling.

  2. Gradually add the cheese mixture, stirring until melted and smooth.

  3. Season with nutmeg and black pepper.

Serve

  1. Serve with bread cubes for dipping.

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. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Cheese + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,130 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Nutmeg + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Garlic + peppertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,090 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

Grated cheese
Melts into the sauce to provide the main body and rich flavor.
White wine
Provides the liquid base and acidity that keeps the cheese smooth.
Cornstarch
Thickens the sauce and helps stop the cheese from separating when heated.
Garlic
Adds aromatic flavor to the pot as it is rubbed inside.

The step that matters

Gradually add the cheese mixture, stirring until melted and smooth. Adding cheese too quickly or overheating it can cause the proteins to clump and the fat to separate, leaving a grainy sauce. Gentle heat and steady stirring keep the emulsion smooth.

Swap the garlic

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cheese, white wine, clove, nutmeg, pepper, bread):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Allspicefits better
  4. Garlicthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cheese, white wine, clove, nutmeg, pepper, bread. 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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