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 ↓
Cheese Fondue
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.
Prepare the egg mixture
Separate the yolks from the egg whites.
Beat the yolks and mix them with all the ingredients except the egg whites.
Beat the egg whites until very stiff and carefully fold them into the mixture.
Bake and serve
Pour the mixture into a buttered baking dish.
Bake for 20 minutes in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C).
Serve immediately.
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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Bread + buttertop 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).
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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 bind the mixture and whipped whites lighten it, giving the fondue its airy structure.
- Cheese
- Melts into the custard, adding richness, flavor and a creamy texture when set.
- Soft stale bread crumbs
- Absorb the milk and add body, helping the mixture hold together while baking.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base that the eggs set into during baking, keeping the texture moist.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and helps prevent the dish from sticking to the baking dish.
The step that matters
Folding in the egg whites. Whites beaten until very stiff trap air that expands in the oven. Folding gently keeps that air in; stirring hard deflates the foam and leaves a dense, flat fondue.
“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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