Why it works: Cheddar cheese and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,436 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Cheese Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Make the mixture
In a saucepan, combine the cheese and butter. Stir over medium heat until melted.
Remove from heat and add the beaten eggs. Mix well.
Pour the mixture into a shallow baking dish.
Brown and serve
Brown under the broiler for about 10 minutes.
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.
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Cheddar cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,436 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Cheddar cheese + eggtop 25% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,287 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Cheddar cheese
- Melts into a rich, creamy body that forms the pudding's base.
- Eggs
- Set when heated, giving the pudding structure and a firm, custard-like texture.
- Butter
- Adds fat and smoothness, helping the melted cheese stay silky.
The step that matters
Adding the eggs off the heat. Eggs thicken when heated, so if the cheese mixture is too hot when they are added they can scramble or curdle. Removing the pan from the heat first lets the eggs blend in smoothly and set gently later under the broiler.
“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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