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Cheese Toast

Cheese Toast is a savory toast topped with a creamy cheese and egg mixture.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Cheese Toast

Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Cheese Toast

Ingredients

Directions

Make the cheese mixture

  1. Heat the butter in a frying pan until hot.

  2. Gradually add the cheese and whisk until melted.

  3. Stir in the cream and mix well.

  4. Add the beaten eggs, salt, paprika, and mace; stir to combine.

Serve

  1. Spread the mixture over the crisp toast and 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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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 + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  2. Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

  3. Cheese + creamtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,655 recipes

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

  4. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Cream + macetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,009 recipes

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

What each ingredient does

Cheese
Melts into the sauce, giving the mixture its rich flavor and savory body.
Eggs
Set with gentle heat to thicken the mixture and bind it into a spreadable topping.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, keeping the mixture smooth and soft once it sets.

The step that matters

Adding the beaten eggs. Eggs thicken when heated, so the mixture can curdle or turn grainy if it gets too hot. Keep the heat moderate and stir steadily so it stays smooth and spreadable.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, cheese, cream, egg):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, cheese, cream, 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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