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 Fondu
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Make the base
Melt the butter in a saucepan and whisk in the boiled milk.
Dissolve the flour in the cold milk, add it to the mixture, and let it cool.
Combine and bake
Beat the egg yolks with salt, pepper, and grated cheese.
Whip the egg whites until stiff and fold them into the mixture.
Pour the mixture into a deep tin lined with buttered paper, allowing for rising.
Bake at 400°F (200°C) for 20 minutes and serve immediately.
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.
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,962 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Milk + cheesetop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,426 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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
- Eggs
- Whipped whites trap air for lift, while yolks add richness and help set the custard.
- Flour
- Thickens the milk mixture so the base holds its body while baking.
- Butter
- Adds richness and flavour to the base mixture.
- Grated cheese
- Provides the main flavour and, as it melts, adds richness to the custard.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base that the flour thickens and the eggs set into.
The step that matters
Folding in the egg whites. Whites must be whipped until stiff, then folded gently. Overmixing knocks out the air that makes the fondue rise, leaving it 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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