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Cheese Fondu

A baked cheese bread made with milk, butter, bread crumbs, vermicelli, eggs, cheese, baking powder, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 Fondu

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.

Prepare the base

  1. Boil the milk.

  2. Stir in the butter until melted.

  3. Pour the mixture over the bread crumbs in a pie dish.

  4. Soak for a few minutes.

  5. Boil the vermicelli in the milk.

  6. Add the vermicelli to the bread crumbs.

Make the batter

  1. Beat the eggs.

  2. Mix in the cheese, salt, and pepper. Stir continuously.

  3. Add the baking powder. Mix well.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake in a 400°F oven for 30 minutes until the center is firm.

  2. Serve immediately.

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. Milk + buttertop 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. 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
Bind the mixture and set into a firm, sliceable center when baked.
Bread crumbs
Absorb the buttered milk to form the soft body of the bread.
Cheese
Adds rich flavor and fat, and melts into the custard for savoury taste.
Milk
Provides moisture that softens the crumbs and sets with the eggs.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the oven so the bread rises and lightens.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a tender crumb.

The step that matters

Bake until the center is firm. Eggs set as their proteins coagulate with heat. Pulling the bread too early leaves a wet, collapsed center, while overbaking dries and toughens the crumb.

“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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