Why it works: Milk and rice are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,374 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Cheese Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Make the base
In a large saucepan, melt the cheese with a little hot milk.
Once the cheese is melted, slowly add 1 quart of hot milk while stirring constantly (do not let it boil).
Finish the soup
Gradually stir in the well-beaten eggs to prevent curdling.
Cook for 5 minutes, adding the salt, pepper, and boiled rice or spaghetti, ensuring the mixture does not boil.
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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Milk + ricetop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,374 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Cheese + milktop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,426 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Pepper + ricetop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,379 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Cheese + ricetop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together942 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Cheese + peppertop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,861 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Cheese
- Melts into the hot milk to give the soup its rich, savoury flavour and body.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base and gives the soup a smooth, creamy texture.
- Eggs
- Set gently with heat to thicken the soup and add richness.
- Boiled rice or spaghetti
- Adds bulk and a soft, hearty texture to the soup.
The step that matters
Adding the eggs gradually. Egg proteins set when overheated, so they curdle if they meet too much heat at once. Stirring the beaten eggs in slowly and keeping the soup below a boil keeps it smooth and evenly thickened.
“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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