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Cheese Fondu

A baked cheese mixture with bread crumbs, eggs, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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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 Fondu

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 custard

  1. Soak the bread crumbs in the milk.

  2. Beat in the eggs, melted butter, pepper, salt, and mace.

  3. Stir in the grated cheese.

Bake and serve

  1. Butter a pudding dish and pour in the mixture.

  2. Sprinkle fine crumbs on top and cover.

  3. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 30 minutes, then uncover and brown quickly.

  4. Serve immediately as it will fall while cooling.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Bread + cheesetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,130 recipes

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

  4. Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

  5. Milk + cheesetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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
Set the custard into a sliceable structure as they cook.
Dry cheese
Provides the main flavour and fat, and melts into the custard.
Milk
Supplies moisture that softens the bread crumbs and forms the custard base.
Bread crumbs
Absorb the milk and add body, giving the custard a firmer texture.
Baking soda
Raises the mixture's pH slightly, which can help the cheese melt smoothly.

The step that matters

Brown quickly after uncovering. The custard is set mainly by gentle baking, so a short, hot finish browns the top without overcooking the interior. It will fall as it cools, so serve it straight away.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, bread, cheese, egg, butter, pepper. 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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