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Cheese Ramequine

A baked cheese custard in ramekins made with butter, flour, milk, cream, eggs, and grated cheese.

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

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the base

  1. In a saucepan, mix the flour and butter until well combined.

  2. Add the cream and milk, stirring until the mixture thickens.

  3. Boil for 3 to 4 minutes, then add the cheese, egg yolks, and seasoning.

Bake and serve

  1. Whip the egg whites until stiff and gently fold them into the mixture.

  2. Pour the mixture into greased ramekin cases and sprinkle grated cheese on top.

  3. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 10 to 15 minutes.

  4. Serve in the ramekins.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 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
Yolks enrich and set the base while whipped whites lighten and puff the soufflé.
Butter
Fat that combines with flour to form the roux, adding richness and flavour.
Flour
Starch that thickens the butter and milk into a smooth, stable base.
Milk
Liquid that hydrates the flour, forming a thick white sauce with the cream.
Grated cheese
Adds savoury flavour and fat, and melts into the base for richness.

The step that matters

Whip the egg whites until stiff. Stiff egg whites trap air that makes the mixture rise in the oven. Folding gently keeps that air in, so the dish stays light instead of deflating.

“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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