Skip to main content
Main

Ramakins, German

A baked cheese bread made with milk, flour, butter, Parmesan, Gruyere, eggs, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Parmesan cheese and gruyere cheese match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 152 recipes. Both carry ethyl 2-methylbutyrate, which smells fruity, apple. The science ↓

Ramakins, German

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the paste

  1. Simmer the milk in a saucepan without boiling.

  2. Gradually add the flour while stirring continuously until smooth and lump-free.

  3. Add salt, butter, and both cheeses, stirring until well mixed.

  4. Cook until the mixture easily rolls from the saucepan, then remove from heat.

  5. Beat the eggs and stir them into the hot mixture.

Bake and serve

  1. Butter a baking dish and pour in the paste.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for about 10 minutes until risen and golden.

  3. 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. Parmesan cheese + gruyere cheesetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together152 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Butter + gruyere cheesetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together323 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

  5. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 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
Bind the paste and help it rise and set into a light, airy bread.
Flour
Forms the starchy structure that holds the paste together as it cooks.
Milk
Provides the liquid that hydrates the flour and gives the paste a soft texture.
Parmesan cheese
Adds savoury, salty flavour and helps the crust brown in the oven.
Gruyere cheese
Adds rich, nutty flavour and melts into the paste for a savoury character.

The step that matters

Cook the paste until it rolls from the saucepan. Cooking drives off excess moisture and partly gelatinises the flour, so the paste holds its shape. Under-cooked paste is too wet to rise well in the oven.

“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.

You might also like

Macaroni and CheeseMacaroni and Cheese102 recipesCheese MakingCheese Making50 recipesCheese FrittersCheese Fritters34 recipesCheese OmeletteCheese Omelette31 recipes