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Ramakins, Dutch

A Dutch toast made by spreading a cheese, egg yolk, butter, and optional anchovy mixture on bread and baking.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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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 ↓

Ramakins, Dutch

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the topping

  1. In a marble mortar, combine the grated cheese, egg yolk, butter, and anchovy if using.

  2. Pound the mixture until smooth.

Assemble and cook

  1. Toast the bread, butter it, and spread the cheese mixture thickly on top.

  2. Cut the bread into small squares.

  3. Bake in a Dutch oven or broil under a salamander for 2-3 minutes.

Serve

  1. Serve hot on a folded napkin.

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 + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Cheese + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,130 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Anchovy + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,260 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanol (green, fruity).

  5. Egg + anchovytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,330 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Cheshire cheese
Melts into a rich, savoury layer that browns and sets on the toast.
Egg yolk
Adds richness and helps bind the cheese into a smooth, spreadable paste.
Butter
Adds fat for smoothness and helps the topping brown lightly when heated.
Bread
Provides a crisp, sturdy base that holds the warm cheese topping.

The step that matters

Pound the mixture until smooth. If the cheese, yolk and butter are not fully worked together, the topping stays lumpy and may separate or spread unevenly when heated.

“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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