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Cheese Fondue

A baked cheese mixture made with butter, flour, milk, cheese, salt, cayenne, egg yolks, and folded egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Cheese Fondue

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the base

  1. In a small saucepan, melt the butter and flour over medium heat until bubbling.

  2. Add the milk or cream and stir to prevent burning until smooth.

  3. Stir in the grated cheese, salt, and cayenne until well mixed.

  4. Remove from heat and stir in the beaten egg yolks.

Bake and serve

  1. Whisk the egg whites until stiff and gently fold them into the mixture.

  2. Butter a baking dish that will be half filled with the mixture.

  3. Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) until golden brown.

  4. Wrap a napkin around the dish and serve immediately to prevent it from falling.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

  3. Milk + cheesetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,426 recipes

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

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Egg whites
Whisked until stiff, they trap air that lifts the mixture as it bakes.
Egg yolks
Thicken the cheese base and add richness once stirred in off the heat.
Cheese
Provides the main flavor and melts into the sauce for a creamy body.
Flour
Cooked with butter to form a roux that thickens the milk or cream.
Milk or cream
Forms the liquid base that the roux thickens into a smooth sauce.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Stiff whites hold the air that makes the fondue rise. Overmixing or stirring them in vigorously deflates the foam, so the dish bakes flat and dense.

“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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