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Cheese Eggs

Cheese Eggs are fried cheese balls coated in cracker crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 106,462 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Cheese Eggs

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mixture

  1. In a bowl, mix the grated cheese, salt, flour, and cayenne pepper.

  2. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.

  3. Gently fold the beaten egg whites into the cheese mixture.

Shape and coat

  1. Shape the mixture into small egg shapes.

  2. Roll each shaped egg in very fine cracker crumbs.

Fry and serve

  1. Heat oil in a deep pan and fry the cheese eggs until golden brown.

  2. Drain on paper towels and arrange on a folded napkin for serving.

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. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Cheese + peppertop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,861 recipes

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

  3. Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Cheese + eggtop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,253 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Cheese + flourtop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,860 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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

Grated cheese
Provides the main flavour and binds the body of the cheese eggs.
Egg whites
Whipped to stiff peaks, they lighten the mixture so the cheese eggs stay tender inside.
Flour
Absorbs moisture and helps the shaped mixture hold its form while frying.
Cracker crumbs
Form a crisp outer coating that browns during frying.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Stiff whites hold air that lightens the mixture. Folding gently keeps that air in; stirring or beating it down makes the cheese eggs dense and heavy.

“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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