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Dessert

Cheese Fonda

A baked cheese custard made with milk, bread crumbs, eggs, butter, cheese, and baking soda.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter 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 ↓

Cheese Fonda

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Soak the bread crumbs in the milk.

  2. Add the baking soda, beaten eggs, and melted butter.

  3. Stir in the grated cheese last.

Bake

  1. Pour the mixture into a buttered baking dish.

  2. Bake until set.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Bread + cheesetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,130 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Milk + cheesetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,426 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set the custard-like batter and bind it into a sliceable structure as it bakes.
Bread crumbs
Soak up the milk and give the fonda body and a soft, tender texture.
Sweet milk
Provides the liquid that hydrates the crumbs and forms the base of the custard.
Grated cheese
Adds richness and flavor, and melts into the custard as it bakes.
Melted butter
Adds fat for richness and a tender crumb.
Baking soda
Lifts the batter slightly as it bakes, giving a lighter texture.

The step that matters

Bake until set. Egg proteins set as they heat, firming the custard. Underbaking leaves it runny in the centre, while overbaking makes it dry and rubbery, so watch for a set centre rather than relying on time alone.

“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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