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Dessert

Cheese Ramekins

Cheese ramekins are a baked custard of eggs, cheese, and cracker crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Olive and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,950 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Cheese Ramekins

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. Boil the cracker crumbs and milk together, stirring until smooth.

  2. Add the grated cheese and olive oil, stirring over heat for 1 minute.

  3. Remove from heat and mix in the dry mustard, cayenne, salt, and egg yolks.

Bake

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

  2. Pour into an oiled baking dish and bake at 400°F (200°C) for 10 minutes.

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. Olive + mustardtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Cheese + mustardtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,805 recipes

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

  5. Olive + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,263 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg whites
Beaten until stiff, they trap air that lifts the mixture as it bakes.
Egg yolks
Add richness and help bind the mixture as it sets.
Grated cheese
Adds savory flavor and fat, and melts into the base.
Cracker crumbs
Thicken the milk into a base that gives the ramekins body.

The step that matters

Fold in the egg whites gently. Stiff whites hold air that gives the ramekins lift. Stirring or deflating them vigorously knocks out that air, so the result bakes flatter and denser.

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, cheese, olive, pepper, egg):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Tomatofits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, cheese, olive, pepper, 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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