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Croutons with Cheese

Cheese croutons are toasted bread cubes coated with a cheese sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter 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 ↓

Croutons with Cheese

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the croutons

  1. Cut the bread into desired shapes and toast until golden brown.

Make the cheese sauce

  1. Scald the milk in a saucepan.

  2. In a bowl, mix the butter and flour until smooth, then stir into the scalded milk.

  3. Stir continuously until the mixture thickens.

  4. Add the egg yolk, grated cheese, and season with salt and white pepper.

Assemble and serve

  1. Place a large teaspoon of the cheese sauce on each crouton.

  2. Serve with macaroni consomme or any soup made from stock.

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. Bread + buttertop 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. Bread + cheesetop 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

Butter
Enriches the sauce and adds richness and smooth flavour as it blends with the flour.
Flour
Thickens the milk into a smooth sauce that holds its shape on the crouton.
Egg yolk
Adds richness and helps bind the cheese sauce as it cooks.
Grated cheese
Adds savoury flavour and body to the sauce.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, which thickens when combined with the flour.

The step that matters

Stir continuously until the mixture thickens. Flour-thickened sauces can lump or scorch on the base of the pan if left unattended. Constant stirring keeps the starch dispersed so the sauce thickens smoothly.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, milk, butter, flour, egg, cheese):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cinnamonfits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, milk, butter, flour, egg, cheese. 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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