Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Cheese Toast
Ingredients
Directions
Make the cheese sauce
In a saucepan, combine the cheese, beaten egg, butter, and sweet milk.
Cook over low heat, stirring until smooth.
Serve
Pour the mixture over the nicely browned toast.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,962 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Cheese + milktop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,426 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Egg + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Cheese
- Melts into the sauce to give it rich flavour and a smooth, creamy body.
- Egg
- Thickens the mixture as it heats, giving it a body that holds on the toast.
- Sweet milk
- Forms the liquid base that the cheese and egg cook into a smooth sauce.
- Butter
- Adds fat for a richer flavour and a silkier texture in the sauce.
The step that matters
Cooking over low heat while stirring. Egg proteins set quickly when heated, so high heat or no stirring can scramble the egg and leave lumps. Gentle heat with constant stirring keeps the sauce smooth as the cheese melts.
“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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