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Melted Cheese

A cheese and egg mixture served hot with toasted bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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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 ↓

Melted Cheese

Ingredients

Directions

Make the melted cheese

  1. In a saucepan over medium heat, combine the grated cheese, eggs, and butter.

  2. Stir until the eggs are set.

Toast and serve

  1. Slice the bread and toast it until brown.

  2. Serve the melted cheese hot with the toasted bread.

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

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

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

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

  4. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  5. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Creamery cheese
Melts into a smooth, rich base that gives the dish its body and flavor.
Eggs
Set when stirred over heat, thickening the cheese into a soft, custardy texture.
Butter
Adds fat for silkier texture and richer flavor as it melts into the cheese.

The step that matters

Stir until the eggs are set. Eggs thicken as their proteins coagulate with heat. Over-high heat or too long stirring can curdle them, so keep the heat moderate and stop once the mixture is thick and creamy.

“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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