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Parmesan Fondue

A baked cheese fondue made with flour, milk, butter, Parmesan, eggs, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter 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 ↓

Parmesan 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. Mix the flour with a little cold water to form a smooth paste.

  2. Stir in the boiling milk.

  3. Season with pepper, salt, and mustard, then add the butter and Parmesan.

  4. Set the mixture aside to cool.

Finish and bake

  1. Grease a mold large enough to allow for rising.

  2. Beat the egg yolks and stir them into the batter.

  3. Whisk the egg whites to a solid froth and fold them in just before baking.

  4. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until set, then serve immediately.

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

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

  2. Butter + parmesan cheesetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,163 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + mustardtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,066 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter 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

Eggs
Egg whites whipped to a froth lift and structure the mixture as it bakes and sets.
Flour
Forms a smooth paste with cold water that thickens the milk into a stable base.
Parmesan cheese
Adds savoury flavour and fat, and its proteins help the baked mixture set firmly.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, giving the base a smooth, silky texture.
Milk
Hydrates the flour paste and forms the creamy body of the base.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Whites must be whisked to a solid froth and folded in gently just before baking. Overmixing deflates the air bubbles, so the fondue rises less and sets less lightly.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Asparagusfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Mustardthe original

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