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Dessert

Cheese Au Gratin

A baked custard of eggs, cheese, milk, and spices, topped with breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread 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 Au Gratin

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Butter small baking dishes.

Make the custard

  1. Beat the egg whites until stiff, then mix in the yolks, salt, and cayenne.

  2. Add the grated cheese and milk to the egg mixture and combine well.

  3. Pour the mixture into the prepared dishes and sprinkle with bread crumbs.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake for 8 minutes until golden. Serve warm.

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 + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Cheese + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,130 recipes

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

  4. Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

  5. Cheese + milktop 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
Whipped whites add lift and structure, and the yolks set to give the dish a custard-like body.
Grated cheese
Provides rich flavour and fat, and helps the top turn golden and savoury as it bakes.
Milk
Adds moisture to the egg mixture so it bakes tender rather than dry.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, browned topping over the surface of the dish.
Butter
Greases the dishes so the baked gratin releases cleanly and browns at the edges.

The step that matters

Beat the egg whites until stiff, then mix in the yolks, salt, and cayenne.. Stiff whites trap air that gives the mixture lift. Folding gently rather than stirring hard keeps that air from deflating before the dish goes into the oven.

“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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