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 Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Make the base
Heat the milk and melt the butter in it.
Mix together the grated cheese, bread crumbs, a little mustard, and salt.
Add the milk and beaten egg yolks.
Fold and bake
Beat the egg whites to a stiff froth.
Gently fold the beaten whites into the mixture.
Bake in a greased pie dish at 350°F (175°C) for twenty minutes.
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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Bread + cheesetop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,130 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,962 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Milk + cheesetop 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
- Eggs
- Yolks enrich and bind the custard, while whipped whites lift the pudding as it bakes.
- Bread crumbs
- Absorb the warm milk and butter to give the pudding its body.
- Cheese
- Provides the main flavour and, as it melts, adds richness and a savoury set.
- Milk
- Supplies the liquid that moistens the crumbs and cooks into a soft custard.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and a tender texture.
The step that matters
Gently fold the beaten whites into the mixture. Egg whites trap air when whipped to stiff froth, and that air expands in the oven to lift the pudding. Folding gently keeps the bubbles intact; stirring or beating them back down leaves a dense, flat result.
Swap the mustard
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, butter, egg, bread, cheese):
- Potatofits better
- Asparagusfits better
- Capsicumfits better
- Mustardthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, butter, egg, bread, cheese. 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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